Read Letter - Save Public Health Care

By Tom Filgas
Written Mar. 15, 2010
A letter written to Ms. Bridget A. Pastoor, Lethbridge-East

Dear Ms. Pastoor, On Sunday, March 7, 2010 I waited in the Lethbridge Regional Hospital Emergency Department for five hours with an inflamed appendix before being seen by the emergency room nurse and doctor. Once I was admitted and the nurse and doctors saw me I received the best medical care possible. Although my appendix had ruptured and things were not good, I'm glad to report that I'm safely at home healing up. Without our local hospital lab things may have turned out differently. I believe that wait times could be reduced if there was a clinic in the city that remained open 24/7 that would see patients with minor complaints such as colds and flu, stomach upset,a bandaged toe, sprained ankle, or suturing of minor injuries. I believe this to be true because I observed a number of people using the emergency department as a walkin clinic. This needs to change in order to free medical staff up to deal with true emergencies such as a boy age 8-9 years of age who waited with his father for the same amount of time I did. I could tell the child was not at all well and in distress. Finally in frustration the boy and his father left the hospital. This is not a good situation and may have placed the child's health and well-being in danger. This was no fault of the medical staff who, while being run off their feet, did their best with a lack of staff to meet everyone's needs. However, with a few changes to the way the system works, I believe these instances could largely be avoided. I'm grateful for our public health care system and appreciate what the nurses and doctors do to help patients. We need to save public health care for good of future generations. It concerns me that the Conservatives in their lack of vision for the future medical needs of people in Lethbridge and the surrounding area plan to close the Lethbridge Regional Hospital lab and ship testing to their private for profit buddies in Calgary and Edmonton. This is truly unacceptable and must be stopped. On the contrary, the government should be hiring more nurses and doctors instead of forcing health professionals to work in an atmosphere of fear, distrust and secrecy and as they phase out their jobs and hand loyal employees their pink slips after many years of good service to the patients in our region. We need to get rid of Duckett and the super board and return to elected regional boards as before. We need to have front line health professionals included on our hospital boards as well as representatives from various segments of our society. Lethbridge and area has a growing population and there needs to be a clear vision of the future and what the medical needs will be. We have some of the brightest and best minds right here in Alberta and the best nurses and doctors. Don't force our med school graduates out of province. The Conservatives are lying to the public by saying they haven't frozen hiring of medical professionals and they need to be taken to task for their lack of vision and mismanagement and be held accountable for their outright stupidity and lack of vision. Their actions are nothing short than crimes against humanity. I'm outraged by the actions of the Conservative government to privatize our public health care sytem. They must be stopped. We are way overdue for not only a change in government but a change in the way any government treats Albertans. The government exists to serve the good of the people not the other way around. Please bring my concerns forward in the legislature. We need to save our public health care system. Thank you for your hard work and effort on behalf of Albertans to make our voices heard.

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