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13 | The IFP -H alton H ills | T hursday,O ctober 10,2019 theifp.ca Freshly Made & Baked On Premises Breads, Buns, Pastries,Meat Pies & More! 905-877-0596 Pre-Order your Buns and Treats today! MILLER'S ScottISh BakERy MILLER'S ScottISh BakERy IMPORTED BRITISH CHEESES OPEN SAT OC T 12 (Closed Sun & Mon) Thanksgiving Get-together? 330 GUELPH ST.,GEORGETOWN (opposite Canadian Tire) www.millersscottishbakery.com 1 Halton Hills Drive, Halton Hills, L7G 5G2 | 905-873-2601 | 1-877-712-2205 | haltonhills.ca TOWN HALL - 905-873-2600 Closed ACTIVAN Booking Office: Closed ActiVan Service: Closed Taxi Scrip Program is available by calling any local participating taxi company: Gtown Taxi: 905-873-2222 (accessible taxi available) EZ Taxi: 905-873-9900 (accessible taxi available) McKab Taxi: 905-877-1234 CANINE CONTROL - 905-877-6235 FIRE DEPARTMENT HEADQUARTERS - 905-877-1133 Administration is closed TRANSPORTATION & PUBLIC WORKS Public Works After-Hours Contact: 905-873-2600 Press 2 to connect to the Public Works After-Hours Line and follow the prompts. PUBLIC LIBRARY - 905-873-2681 Acton Branch: Closed Georgetown Branch: Closed RECREATION & PARKS DEPARTMENT Gellert Community Centre: Closed Georgetown & Acton Indoor Pool: Closed Acton Arena & Community Centre: Open for Advanced Polls ONLY, no recreational programming Mold-Masters SportsPlex: Open in the evening for pre-booked rentals only Hillsview Active Living Centre Georgetown & Acton: Closed Halton Hills Cultural Centre - Helson Gallery & JET Box office: Closed FOR EMERGENCIES - FIRE/POLICE/AMBULANCE: DIAL 911 HOLIDAY CLOSURES Thanksgiving - Monday, October 14, 2019A patient thanked me today. She said, "I know you don't hear it very often. I'm sure you get more com- plaints than not. But I want to say thank you for the time you put in learning how to care for me and then doing it." Her words stayed with me. She lifted my spirits. I felt understood and appre- ciated. She also made me think. How often did I thank my coworkers, my patients? And the flip side: How often did I complain about our health-care system? I look around and I see hospitals struggling all across Ontario. Emergen- cy departments swamped with waiting patients, wait- ing to be seen, waiting to be admitted to a floor bed, crowding hallways, stretchers and chairs. I see patients confused and frus- trated by the bureaucratic jumble our health-care sys- tem has become. So many of them even without a family doctor. I see manag- ers struggling to juggle beds, make impossible de- cisions between who's the sickest. I see doctors, nurs- es, caregivers and patients stretching in extraordi- nary ways to fill the gaps in our health-care system. I see burnout etched on fac- es and echoing in so many voices. It's what pushes me to advocate for better. And yet, we are lucky. We at least have a health- care system. It's far from perfect. And parts of it are just plain broken. But we have a starting place. A launching point. So I took another look around today. I saw the same doctors, having worked several nights on call in a row, there again with a quiet wisdom and compassion. I saw the same nurses, still working dou- ble shifts, but doing so with a kind word and smile. I saw the many small acts of kindness that smoothed over the rough edges of an overcrowded emergency department or a swamped medical-surgical ward. I saw the patients who, wait- ing for their own surgery, graciously made way for the emergency case that bumped them. Change is coming to our health-care system. It is slow and unwieldy. But it is coming. And it is desper- ately needed. The problems we see to- day were years in the mak- ing. The solutions will take just as long. While we push for change, I'm also going to take a lesson from my pa- tient, and I will thank the people who keep our health-care system togeth- er. Nadia Alam is a Georgetown physician and past president of the Onta- rio Medical Association. Her columns also appear on https://medi- um.com/@docschmadia. She can be reached at na- dia.alam@oma.org. OPINION HEALTH CARE IS A PEOPLE INDUSTRY WORKERS KEEP THINGS TOGETHER, WRITES NADIA ALAM NADIA ALAM Column WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU SUBMIT YOUR LETTER TO THE EDITOR TODAY!