A2- Sunday ews, July 26, 1981

Divorce.

The word is always uttered in a whisper, as
though it was a loathsome thing.

It has. the ring of failure,
defeat, ruin. It’s like being
hit by a curse. It is to be
avoided at all costs. .

_When the statistics are
trotted out, divorce is always
listed as a minus, while
matriage gets a plus sign.

To have been divorced is
somchow not quite as heroic

least, that’s
attitude.
Yet the truth is that

_ FROM PAGE A1

some surgeons are so busy
that a patient can wait a year
or more for their operation.

LGH Chief of Surgery Dr.
David O'Brien agrees that
the disparity in waiting lists
among surgeons means that
patients are not waiting the
same amount of time before
their operation.

While ideally it shouldn't
matter what kind of opera-
tion is pending or what
surgeon is involved, O’Brien
said the number of variables
that must be coordinated for
an operation means people
are waiting varying lengths
of time.

There are 40 surgeons at
LGH using seven operating
rooms. When elective
surgery is needed — for
cosmetic, hernia, hip replac-
ment or varicose veins — the
patients name is added to the
hospital's waiting list.

Theoretically when that

divorce was the greatest
invention since marriage. I'd
hate to live im a world
without it.

And I think anyone who is
objective will agree that
most of the real tragedies are
the marriages that go on that
shouldn't. ©

Frankly, 1 don’t see many
marriages that look like
totally groovy relationships.
In most cases, husband and
wife are locked into a series
of Byzantine ¢go-struggies

Some patients

person's turn arrives, surgery
should be scheduled. But if
the surgeon performing the
operation is busy — doing
hospital rounds, visiting his
office — or has already spent
three days in the operating
room, then the patient goes
down on the list again.

Some surgeons have
waiting lists hovering
between 200 to 300 while
others sit at around 40.

The busiest surgeons
spend about two-and-a-half
days a week operating.
There is a time limit on just
how much surgery one doc-
tor can do, said O'Brien. “If
(a patient) wants to sce a
particular surgeon than
(he'll) have to realize there's
going to be a wait.”

The alternative — opera-
tions being performed by the
first available qualified
surgeon would not work, he
said. “You can't force peo
pie to sce (a surgeon) who ts
less busy. People would
baulk — they want a degree

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with each ower in which
unresolved neurotic hangups
are worked out, invariably at
the ¢c of = rational
behaviour. You know what I
mean?

To understand divorce,
we have to have at least a
clue about the nature. of
matriage. Of course it has
been romanticized in
mainstream Western culture
in the last couple of cen-
turies.

But basically it has always
been a form of bondage, of
slavery — or hierarchical
paternalism, to coin a
phrase.

wait a year

of choice. The way it is now
is satisfactory because it of-
-fers a choice to both patient
and doctor,” O’Brien said.

According to O'Brien and
administrator John  Bor-
thwick the problem would
not be solved if LGH had
more surgeons. There isn't
one surgical specialty where
all doctors are “run off their
feet” and more surgeons
would just add patients to
the waiting list.

The surgery chief em-
phasized that if was an
“oversimplification” to
blame the doctors alone for
the long waiting fist.

Of the 1,800 people now
waiting, O’Brien said only
400 or so of them are pro-
bably waiting longer than
usual while they wait for a
particular surgeon.

Ward and op®rating room
closures, nursing shortages
and beds that are filled with
emergency cases all con-
tribute to the delay, he said.

For the past few winters

surgical beds were filled to’

capacity so “we had to start
shutting down the operating
room and cancclling (clec
tive) surgery ~

Fm a bit of an expert on
divorce... My mother. and
father got divorced. when I

was a. kid. I got divorced.

myself after twelve years of
e. My brother's

same amount of time before
grinding to a fairly horrifying
end,

I've seen — and felt — the
effects it has on the adults
involved, the in-laws, the
parents, the grandparents,
and, above all, upon the
children. And that’s not
counting the suffering of the
pets involved.

Or, for that matter, the
loss experienced by couples
you knew who, now that.
you're on your own or with
someone new, it just doesn't
work with any longer.

Ive often tried to figure
out whether the fact that my
parents got divorced had
anything to do with the fact
that I wound up getting
divorced myself.

BUDGET DEFICIT

And the situation could
get worse with the recent
news that the hospital has

been underfunded $2.8
million for next year.

LGH_ requested $43.5
million for 1981-82 but when
the provincial heaith
ministry announced its
budgets, it was only

allocated $40.6 million — a
deficit of 6.6 per cent, said
Borthwick.

“This would have very
serious implications in terms
of the amount of staff we can
hire and the aumber of ser-
vices offered to the com-
munity,” he said.

He could not be specific
about the tmpact the short-
fall will have until a
breakdown in the budget is
received.

The budget requested is
up 14.8 per cent from 1980-
81's of $35.4 million. That in-
cluded nine per cent for in-
creased labor costs and five
per cent for additional ser-
vices.

LGH ts already running a
dcficit of $2.5 millon it ac
crucd last year.

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Probably it did, but you
could go nuts trying to figure
out every Little twist and

‘warp in your mind. Maybe

this means my own kids are
doomed to go through
divorces, too. Some sort of
social pattern.

Even if that were the case,
I'd have to say: Terrific.

I think that in almost 100
per cent of the cases where
people get divorced, they
wind up happier for it in the
long run. And I mean all of
them. The couple. The kids.

The grandparents.

122 W. 4th St., North Van.

Although maybe not the
in-laws. There is a tendency
for the in-laws to get lost in
these-shuffles. But:so be it.

Just as marriage has been
hopelessly romanticized, the
drama of divorce has been
hyped as the end of the
world. It isn’t. For most, it's
like an escape from a loony
bin, even if half the lunacy
was their own. <

Don’ t knock it. Divorce is
great.* Generally, 1!
recommend it.

At least once.

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