Published January 13, 2011
by iris_author
I don’t usually read the Excalibur, but last semester I grabbed an issue off of the racks and was fairly impressed by the editorial piece by the managing editor, Brent Rose. The article was concerning the health care services at York, specifically Appletree Medical in York Lanes.
Rose cites numerous cases where profit was chosen over York students’ wellbeing at Appletree Medical. The registered nurse that was working at Appletree was replaced by a ‘medical assistant’ that is able to do a fraction of what a registered nurse could do at the clinic. International students had to start paying $15 for every visit, even though they are covered by the York health care plan, and pay for it yearly. One of the doctors has left because he became disgruntled by the lack of concern for student’s health. Lastly, they fired the only chiropractor in the area because it was not an ‘essential service.’ The worst part is that no chiropractors can open up a practice in York Lanes since Appletree has exclusive rights to provide health care at York.
Natalie Livshitz photo from Excalibur article
On November 30th, Appletree Medical posted an update stating that soon there will be an Appletree Wait Timer program to download on your Iphone which will notify you of how long you will have to wait before seeing a doctor. This application is absolutely pointless. One of the many issues at Appletree is not being unsure of how long we have to wait rather it is the long wait time itself. Last week I sat in Appletree for two hours with a friend who needed an appointment that should have taken five minutes. After two hours of waiting, and no reassurance from the staff, we left without her seeing a doctor.
The Excalibur article concludes by voicing a concern for the rampant apathy surrounding how healthcare is offered at this campus. My only hope is that I will still be at Yorku when Appletree’s choice to disregard student’s health needs in the pursuit of profit is no longer ignored.
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