Re: Is Canada Home?
 

They play it slowly, do they?

Re: Is Canada Home?
 

But out in yon old country there's never a corpse, always a handy pig farmer to help out with such business. Shoes yes, corpse no.

Rich.

Re: Is Canada Home?
 

Slightly, but with a mellowness of such virtue.

Rich.

Re: Is Canada Home?
 

Very funny and slightly informative thread. Thanks guys for making me smile this morning. :D :D :D

Re: Is Canada Home?
 

I couldn't go on with the banter last night as I was meeting my daughter for dinner. She was entertaining as always but, in passing, painted a sobering picture of life in Toronto; she made it sound like rich's Britain!

She's a nurse in the recent-and-gruesome injury department of a local hospital. Most of the patients she deals with have gunshot wounds, though they also get subway jumpers and some road traffic accidents. Currently all her patients have been shot by the police. Each patient has two armed guards and is shackled to the bed, often the doctor's instructions conflict with those of the cops; the doctors want the patients walking around while the cops want them chained and drugged so they can go to the coffee shop.
Note that this isn't a prison hospital; just a downtown one. It sounds a lively place but apparently it's nothing compared to "emerg on welfare cheque day".

I'm told there's a terrible shortage of nurses who have strong English language skills, accordingly my daughter has a student following her around and has been asked to be the charge nurse on some shifts despite having graduated from university only last summer. She finds the job exciting and challenging but is looking at America as her pay ,which is about $3,000 per pay period, is only $1500 after the tax man gets at it. I, of course, agree that Toronto on PAYE isn't viable; that's why I haven't had a proper job since 1985. I wondered about arguing that America is dangerous, they have guns there, but thought the better of that.

Re: Is Canada Home?
 

Yeah I'll bet, there are perhaps 2 shootings a week (average) in the entire GTA, yet most of her patients have gunshot wounds?.... I can imagine how many patients a nurse has to deal with in a day. Just more BS, not that I'm surprised knowing who posted this misinformation.

Re: Is Canada Home?
 

I thought you might know how hospitals work, perhaps you've been too long stuck in the sand in your effete mobile. What they do with hospitals is to specialize, see, it's expensive to have an expert in every type of care in each hospital so some focus on hearts, some on children, sort on Jewish patients and so on. In the GTA there are enough patients who have neurological trauma, typically associated with being shot, to sustain several units dealing with just that. It works better for the patients than, say, taking shooting victims to a dental hospital, though it does mean that the staff in the trauma place only see trauma and the staff in the dental hospital see only teeth.

Re: Is Canada Home?
 

I would suspect the vast majority of neurological head trauma cases in the GTA are most likely related to vehicular acidents than anything else. But dont let that stop you making a point.

Re: Is Canada Home?
 

They don't get too many car accident victims downtown, they'd tend to go to Sunnybrook. It does seem to be mainly shootings and subway jumpers. What I find startling about the current bunch isn't that they've been shot but that they've been shot by the police. Some, but not all, of the cases are listed here:

http://www.siu.on.ca/siu_press_subpa...d=8&sectionid=

Re: Is Canada Home?
 

I may be missing something here but did he state "head" trauma?

Re: Is Canada Home?
 

Dont know why you are surprised, its a big city, one of the largest in North America. There are areas with drug problems, shit is going to happen.

Re: Is Canada Home?
 

kind of goes without saying an a neurological ward?

Re: Is Canada Home?
 

They also have people with spinal injuries.

Re: Is Canada Home?
 

That link refers to investigations all over Ontario - not just the GTA.... and none of the rest of what you have said supports your prior claim that most of your daughter's patients are gun shot victims.

... and the vast majority of cases regarding "neurological trauma" would definitely involve head trauma associated with accidents - not gun shot injury.

Re: Is Canada Home?
 

The problem with retiring far away is that one loses track of changes at home. Just as aging Brits abroad fail to realize that the days when people in England "never had it so good" are long gone, you seem to cling to an image of Canada that is comfortable but terribly dated. I don't think anyone currently living or working in central Toronto would be astonished at the idea that "the designated adult-trauma centre for downtown Toronto" could fill a ward with shooting victims. Still, believe what you will, I know the streets of Toronto being clean and crime free is a myth beloved by all you Canadians.