Health Care System

[cakadu]

Here, here.

[cakadu]

My daughter in law is a very dedicated nurse. She works in acute and emergency care, and in her opinion well over 70% of the users of emergency are wasting the health care system in one way or another.
Either by running to emerg with a cold or with a child that has a cold that could easily be looked after at home or by the doctor during office hours, and by those who abuse drugs and alcohol.

On any given night in the hospital where she works at least half a dozen OD's on drugs are brought in, or individuals that have been beaten in drug related crimes. She works in a small Alberta town, so with that kind of usage in small town AB., one can only imagine what waste goes on in large centres.

[cowman]

I think we are forgetting the fact that the supreme court has ruled under the charter of rights that privatized medi care is an option? How does anyone deal with that? The fact is that is now the law of the land? We have no other option.
In fact we can't even legislate public health care as an exclusive thing anymore? The charter decided that...and didn't the great Paul Martin say " The charter is the final say"?
Ralph Klein will do what he thinks is best for the taxpayer of this province. If you don't like it you have the right to vote him out? That is called democracy?
How can any federal government stop a province from going to a "third way"? Did the federal government even make an effort in Quebec? Whats good for Quebec should be good for Alberta, right? Or do you believe Quebec should be treated different than every other province?

[daretodiffer]

Cowman makes a whole bunch of outrageous statements. "The system doesn't work?" absolute nonsense. It works just fine and like anything, the critics could run it cheaper, faster and more efficiently.

Funny thing though, what's that high rise office building sitting next to every American hospital. Why it's the accounting department chasing all those payments for the business.

"When Alberta was basically forced to join medicare, Ernest Manning(premier) said that eventually medicare would break this country and create a monster that we couldn't stop. Now I would say he wasn't far off the mark? "

Spoken like a true Albertan who is convinced that anything they don't agree with in public policy is not their fault but some boogey man from away stuffing things down our throat. Again such utter nonesense. You have an amazing memory to recall the pontification of a premier who hasn't been around for 40 plus years. And a guy who was big on everyman for himself it seems.

"Whenever you take away peoples duty to be responsible for themselves, you take away an essential human element? You create a nanny state where innovation and responsibility are supressed! It is very evident in this society? Everyone feels "entitled" to have a good life, have all the benifits, have the government take care of them...and do as little as possible!...In other words the welfare state?"

This is quite astounding talk coming from a member of the rural community who receives billions of dollars of aid and subsidy from the public purse. Let me tell you another piece of historical memory and only about 3 years old. When the BSE crisis hit Neil Yanke CCA president was in the news saying that "We're dead against government subisides but by gosh this time it's different"

"It is a slippery slope back to slavery?"

Do you ever listen to what you are saying? I doubt that you have any knowledge of "slavery" nor the intricacies of this health care issue. I just know you don't vote for them commie pinko socialists.

[cowman]

Yep, I got what I could out of the BSE subsidies. I wasn't the one who let a bunch of diseased cattle in. I wasn't feeding my cattle dead cows. I wasn't the one who negotiated a trade deal that the Americans didn't honor.
And on top of that I paid a lot more taxes than I ever got from the "BSE subsidies".
Sorry if my quoting Earnest Manning bothers you. My great grandfather was a founding member of the Social Credit party and an MLA and growing up I was taught that was the "true religion"! A very socially and financially conservative party to say the least. Guess I was brainwashed from an early age.

[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.