Telehealth Ontario is a free service that offers health advice given by a nurse. For the times when you wonder whether a fever is high enough to be worried about, or whether your son’s bump on the head could be serious, it is a great timesaver.
But it can be a great source of worry too. I called one Sunday to ask if I needed to see my doctor about a lingering cough. I hate to sit for hours in a doctor’s office (even with an appointment) if I don’t have to. I happened to mention that I had chest pain and was over 50 years old.
Since the nurse can’t see you, she immediately thinks worst case scenario. She advised me to get to the hospital right away since it was a matter of life or death and wanted to call me an ambulance. As you can imagine, the call upset me quite a bit.
I promised to go right to the hospital, where I waited for five hours and had a number of tests, all of them coming back showing no health problems. The hospital receptionist told me that because a heart attack could be a possibility, Telehealth Ontario always sends people to the hospital.
A good precaution, but it makes me a little more careful about calling for health advice again.
Technorati Tags: Telehealth Ontario, health advice, doctor, hospital
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