Health Care System

[craig]

To suggest that the health care system works just fine would seem to be an indication of someone who doesn't use the system much. While our family has enjoyed many years of good health, in the last year we have had the misfortune of needing the system a lot.
For every good experience with health care, we probably had the equivalent of 3 bad experiences. I would pararllel it with farming. If you take on far more work than you can handle, in the end management goes out the window. You cut corners, you don't plan, there is no continuity, and no one seems to want to take any responsibility. The goal is not good health care, it's just getting through the day.

[craig]

My family too, has had some horrific experiences with the system. My eldest grandaughter was diagnosed with inoperable cancer in the fall of 2001. She passed away in February of 2002. During her ilness she received radiation and chemo at the Cross in Edmonton. She remained at home during most of her illness and the pain relieving medication she required was NOT covered by Blue Cross or the cancer board. Her parents literally cashed in all their savings to pay her expenses and the rest of the family helped as much as possible.

I also was privy to some of the happenings in the health care system when I broke my arm and sat for 17 hours in the waiting room of an Edmonton hospital before finally being seen by a doctor.
He took one look at my xray and had me scheduled for surgery the following morning at 7:00 AM.
In the mean time I had to travel for two hours back home to feed animals and pack for my hospital stay....
I will say that a lot of the people in the waiting room were there as a result of drug abuse, fighting etc...but were all seen in the order they came in or the severity of their illness or injury.

The doctor I saw said he only worked for two hours twice a week in emergency and saw patients with broken bones at that time. I have no clue who in heck sees them the rest of the time.

[cowman]

The hospital at Red Deer is also a joke. Need to go to emergency...expect a nice long wait! Better to go to the little town hospital...well if there is one!
The Innisfail hospital is pretty good if you don't have something major? Maybe just need to get sewn up or something like that. No doctor at night but they can give him a quick call and he'll trot right down and get you sewed up. Same thing if you need an X-ray.

[wilagro]

cowman: So things haven't changed much in Red Deer? I lived there for twenty years, and conditions in emergency were the same then as you describe. NO sense of urgency either...they seem to look right around everyone who comes in as if they didn't exist. You could die there and the janitor would probably sweep you up and dispose of your rotting corpse and nobody would be the wiser.

Well, perhaps I exaggerated there a bit.

Anyway, it is damned frustrating to say the least when you have a kid bleeding all over the floor and they treat it as routine and nothing out of the ordinary.

[WoolyBear]

Waiting lines in ER's. Most people don't think before going there for minor sprains, skin rashes and sore throats. A lot of what does come in should be triaged the minute they come through the door. The old color system, tag the person, and put a bit chart on the wall where they can all see it. If your not doing to die in the next 12 hours, then you should be able to wait while the heart attacks, bleeders and heavers go first.

[Horse]

I think a lot of the probems with ER is that you cant get an apointment for 5/10 days now how do you know in advance if you are to be sick.
Why should it cost so much more to go to er than an clinic ,why dont the clinics have a DR at least several hr per day that takes walkin patients I have cows but I dont tell them I will see you at 1Pm the next day I think someone should tell the DR that medicine is a 24hr per day thing and let them come up with a workable solution.