Many seniors within Eastern Ontario\u2019s communities, including Hawkesbury, travel more than an hour in each direction for essential medical care. Taxi fares from Hawkesbury to the Ottawa Hospital are well over $170 per direction, before adding in waiting time. If someone needs to make more than one trip per month for essential appointments, these costs add up making it near impossible to continue to receive essential care.<\/p>\n
This past year, Carefor Eastern Counties has made over 25,900 drives to medical appointments, servicing over 1,600 people within the region. These medical appointments ranged from seeing a family doctor to receiving life-changing dialysis, cancer treatments, and more.<\/p>\n
Transportation fees have been made more affordable, charging $0.42-$0.47 per kilometre versus other for-profit services. However, in many cases, these fees can still be taxing to passengers depending on their frequency of use.<\/p>\n
Yves Deschamps is a Carefor Eastern Counties driver, providing essential transportation services to the Hawkesbury area. Over the past five years, Yves has gotten to know many of the people who receive ongoing transportation services.<\/p>\n
\u201cI enjoy what I do, and the people I can help,\u201d Deschamps said. \u201cIt\u2019s a part of me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deschamps has experienced first-hand some of the tough decisions his clients have had to make over the years, especially when they have had reoccurring medical appointments in Ottawa.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor someone travelling from Rockland to Ottawa, the fees usually around $30 per trip,\u201d he said. \u201cHowever, if you start travelling from Hawkesbury, that fee jumps to over $80 per trip. If you need to go to the eye doctor three or four times a month because you have cataracts, you can\u2019t afford it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the number of drives has dropped over the past couple months, family practitioners and non-emergent surgeries are being re-booked. Many seniors are still feeling the financial ripple effect of the pandemic and are more likely facing financial hardships for the foreseeable future. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe unique aspect we have in Eastern Counties,\u201d said Greg Stevenson, Carefor transportation services supervisor, \u201cis people in the rural cities and towns going into Ottawa. However, for those living in Ottawa, there\u2019s public transit, there\u2019s taxis \u2013 it\u2019s a much shorter range of distance from the client\u2019s home to their doctor or to the hospital, where as in the Eastern Counties it\u2019s much greater.\u201d <\/p>\n
Stevenson\u2019s team tries to make essential transportation as accessible as possible. \u201cA driver could conceivably be waiting for several hours and the time is not being charged to the client,\u201d Stevenson said. \u201cThere is no wait time charge. It\u2019s strictly a kilometre charge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carefor Transportation Services relies on funding from the Ministry of Health and donations to offset the cost of payroll, vehicle maintenance, fuel, and more to continue to provide this essential service to the community. Carefor Eastern Counties also relies on community support so drivers like Yves can continue to provide much-needed transportation to clients at an affordable rate.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the tip of the iceberg of the actual cost of what the client is really paying,\u201d Stevenson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Going to see the doctor for an annual check up is an important preventative measure for maintaining health as people age. But getting to and from these appointments may seem like a luxury to some.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":12854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sante"],"acf":[],"featured_media_global":[],"yoast_head":"\n