Health care...Grey nuns..absolute Disgrace!

[BANG]

Be very thankful if your healthy.
Mother inlaw has been living a nightmare in our health (care?) System.
Bed riddin now after waiting(on the list)for months and months for a hip replacement.
That should of actualy been done years ago.
You think they would bath someone at least every couple weeks!
Hall ways lined with patients stuck in purgatory on gurneys!
And i could go on and on.
Sending her home now to suffer there at least.
The retarded thing is the $ they have/are spending to keep her in this state of agony will far surpass the cost of the surgery if they would of just done it in a reasonable amount of time.
Just unbelievable and i was unaware just how totaly disfunctional the system was untill her experience.
How can it be this crappy with the insane amount of money they steal from us to flush down that toilet?
That is all.
Well that and hope like hell you never need surgery.

[silverdoctor]

I feel for you. Know others that are on a waiting list for various surgeries.

Been to a doctor once since moving to Alberta 14 years ago, and that was at his office. Most other people I know end up going to the ER, and that's where much of the issue lay. Colds and fart jams, off to the ER. It's the same all across Canada. My cousin is a doc back in Newfoundland, same faces sitting in the ER for different things and he has to treat them for whatever they believe is ailing them.

Health care insurance? Introduce a pay per use for people that don't need to be there, and see how fast the hospitals will clear out.

[Zip]

My brother waited a year and a half to get his hip surgery..I had a small lump on my neck here in Alberta and was rushed through 3 surgeries and a bunch if radiation and chemo thrown in as well..I guess they try and do alot of surgeries that if not done quickly are life threatening. Not a perfect world in the health care side of things..my brother suffered hugely for a year and a half..but now he is all better..and five and a half years later I am still suffering from all that they did to me...kinda messed up I know,I get in real quick and suffer for years..and he's all good now!
I am sorry to the op as I don't really have anything to say that is helpful but I just wanted to put out there what I know about that Heath system..we don't get to ever win with the system..people are suffering waiting for help..and others suffer for years after getting help...what a mess!

[ESOXangler]

With the constant cut backs and under funding doctors this is what you get. All those cuts made in the early 2000's made the budget look good but did nothing for our health system!

Spent 52 days last year in the neonatal intensive care unit last year and it made me very proud to be a canadian! And a bit of a socialist! Those hard working front line workers work their butts off. Day in day out! Some get grouchy, but can you blame them! Imagine being surround with disfunction. These amazing people are being set up for failure!

Use this experience to vote on it! We need more investment in the system!

[waterninja]

My Daughter waited 8 yrs. to get her tonsils removed. They used to get infected every 2 months or so which required hospital stays. Every time she was in the hospital we were told she should have her tonsils taken out, but can't be done while infected. Tried every major and minor city/town to find a ears/nose/throat specialist.
Meanwhile she also waited 6 years to get some needed "female" surgery. We have very poor healthcare service in AB but at least the administrators are getting paid millions.

[rugatika]

Originally Posted by ESOXangler

With the constant cut backs and under funding doctors this is what you get. All those cuts made in the early 2000's made the budget look good but did nothing for our health system!

Spent 52 days last year in the neonatal intensive care unit last year and it made me very proud to be a canadian! And a bit of a socialist! Those hard working front line workers work their butts off. Day in day out! Some get grouchy, but can you blame them! Imagine being surround with disfunction. These amazing people are being set up for failure!

Use this experience to vote on it! We need more investment in the system!

More money...no. Better management yes.

I checked in for a surgery several years ago for a torn tendon. Had to check in for a scheduled surgery through the ER...I laughed, they shrugged. (by the way, the care was great as was the surgery ONCE I got through all the administration crappola)

Had a GF whose mom was perfectly healthy, golfed every day...but she had a bad knee and eventually had to reduce her daily exercise to almost nothing while she waited years for knee surgery. Years! And of course her health declined while not being able to get around well. Heard that story many times.

My mom, my sister, my sister-in-law....all RN's from Sask and AB (my mom and SIL have nursed in both provinces) and they all say the same thing, the managers are incompetent for the most part with the occasional person that knows what they're doing more or less.

As usual, throwing good money after bad isn't going to fix anything.

[BANG]

I guess the doc straight up said to the father in law there is no way we should be sending her home and fully expect she will probably end up hurting herself worse at home within a week and you will end up with another ambulance bill and she will be back here but there is no way she can stay now because there are more critical patients that need her bed.
What a great system indeed.

[ESOXangler]

Ruga:

While I completely agree about the manager part(wife works in healthcare), we still need to invest in services! Our hospitals are old, crumbling messes! They are based off health care practices of 30 years ago. And we need to encourage doctors to stay in Canada! In 2010 I was in Lloyd for the shutdown and have the crew of locals I were working with were albertans that moved their so their wifes could get nursing jobs. Alberta had a hiring freeze so they had to go somewhere!

And no one deserves to live in Lloyd!

[schmedlap]

Originally Posted by ESOXangler

With the constant cut backs and under funding doctors this is what you get. All those cuts made in the early 2000's made the budget look good but did nothing for our health system!

Spent 52 days last year in the neonatal intensive care unit last year and it made me very proud to be a canadian! And a bit of a socialist! Those hard working front line workers work their butts off. Day in day out! Some get grouchy, but can you blame them! Imagine being surround with disfunction. These amazing people are being set up for failure!

Use this experience to vote on it! We need more investment in the system!

What we need is much less "investment" in the bureaucracy of the system. Throwing more and more money at it has never helped anyone. I have spent many years dealing with it (20?), due to my oldest son's chronic issues. In the paediatric system one just feels lucky to be in AB, and not elsewhere. Due to the Stollery here in Edmonton there is little or no waiting of any kind at that level, whether in ER or otherwise, if one has a real issue.
It definitely changes once one is out of that modality. We have not had major issues, however, probably because, due to so much familiarity with the system, we learned to navigate it at top speed (?). My son has 2 different (totally unrelated specialties) specialist appointments tomorrow, as it happens, and I have no special influence at all.
My own experiences with getting help and treatment for myself, or my son, have not been bad. But we don't go into the system unless we are seriously ill or "broken"(?). And the "triage" of it gets us treated pretty promptly, in relative terms.
The front line of our system is excellent - the actual doctors and nurses are, IMHO, first class in every respect. But the bureaucracy is appalling and brutally inefficient, as is typical of every such. The system does not need more $ (it is already the most expensive per capita in the country) - it needs the $ to be transferred from useless bureaucracy to actual treatment.
I have had 4 MRI's over the years, for various spine issues. OK, I went "private" and paid for them out of my own pocket, so as to not wait months in agony. Got them done in days. Someone please explain to me how my doing this has disadvantaged those who cannot afford to do this. I got out of the "public" lineup and you got yours sooner, in that milieu, as a result (?). No tax $ got spent. If the opportunity was not there, it would not be there - simple economics - these private providers would not exist. They would just move across the border to near sites (Montana?) and my $ would be spent there instead of here (on top of the taxes I gleefully (?) pay).
In case anyone hasn't caught on ...? The truly "rich" go abroad (US, Germany, etc.) when they need emergent health care. Their $ (not just for the medical care, but also for accomodations, etc.) get spent abroad, instead of in AB. So, how does forcing them to do this, instead of allowing the same private care clinics to set up right here, benefit either the average Albertan, our economy, or the system? We literally drive the best and the brightest professionals away in many cases. My own son's original, very academic, thoracic surgeon went to Kansas, and the brilliant young rheumatologist that he was lucky enough to get referred to when we had a very "weird" problem was soon off to greener pastures in the US.
I strongly suspect that the "poor", and the system, would be much better off if we threw less $ at the bureaucrats and allowed more choice in the "private v. public" sphere of health care. But I stand to be "educated" by those who are of the opposite view.

[purgatory.sv]

Originally Posted by schmedlap

What we need is much less "investment" in the bureaucracy of the system. Throwing more and more money at it has never helped anyone. I have spent many years dealing with it (20?), due to my oldest son's chronic issues. In the paediatric system one just feels lucky to be in AB, and not elsewhere. Due to the Stollery here in Edmonton there is little or no waiting of any kind at that level, whether in ER or otherwise, if one has a real issue.
It definitely changes once one is out of that modality. We have not had major issues, however, probably because, due to so much familiarity with the system, we learned to navigate it at top speed (?). My son has 2 different (totally unrelated specialties) specialist appointments tomorrow, as it happens, and I have no special influence at all.
My own experiences with getting help and treatment for myself, or my son, have not been bad. But we don't go into the system unless we are seriously ill or "broken"(?). And the "triage" of it gets us treated pretty promptly, in relative terms.
The front line of our system is excellent - the actual doctors and nurses are, IMHO, first class in every respect. But the bureaucracy is appalling and brutally inefficient, as is typical of every such. The system does not need more $ (it is already the most expensive per capita in the country) - it needs the $ to be transferred from useless bureaucracy to actual treatment.
I have had 4 MRI's over the years, for various spine issues. OK, I went "private" and paid for them out of my own pocket, so as to not wait months in agony. Got them done in days. Someone please explain to me how my doing this has disadvantaged those who cannot afford to do this. I got out of the "public" lineup and you got yours sooner, in that milieu, as a result (?). No tax $ got spent. If the opportunity was not there, it would not be there - simple economics - these private providers would not exist. They would just move across the border to near sites (Montana?) and my $ would be spent there instead of here (on top of the taxes I gleefully (?) pay).
In case anyone hasn't caught on ...? The truly "rich" go abroad (US, Germany, etc.) when they need emergent health care. Their $ (not just for the medical care, but also for accomodations, etc.) get spent abroad, instead of in AB. So, how does forcing them to do this, instead of allowing the same private care clinics to set up right here, benefit either the average Albertan, our economy, or the system? We literally drive the best and the brightest professionals away in many cases. My own son's original, very academic, thoracic surgeon went to Kansas, and the brilliant young rheumatologist that he was lucky enough to get referred to when we had a very "weird" problem was soon off to greener pastures in the US.
I strongly suspect that the "poor", and the system, would be much better off if we threw less $ at the bureaucrats and allowed more choice in the "private v. public" sphere of health care. But I stand to be "educated" by those who are of the opposite view.

That is the only part of your post I understood, actually chose to understand.

[sikwhiskey]

Where did king ralph go when he got sick??????? What do you pay income tax for??? Why and when was income tax implemented???

Is incOME tax against the law according to the SCOC?????

Why don't you get taught this in school?

[raab]

As an ex healthcare worker this is the reason I hope the PC's get the boot tomorrow. They've mismanaged everything and ****ed away tons of money on middle managers instead of investing in front line staff and infrastructure. As I said earlier in a different thread if we keep the current path the healthcare system in this province will fail.

[wolfhunter]

The health care is horrible here. Twice I've had to pay out out of here in Alberta, once for my back I had to dish out over $5000 dollars to get a procedure done on my back that would have taken over two years here. So a person is suppose to be in pain for that period of time. The next surgery I had was on my shoulder, another two year wait, so I'm suppose too put my life on hold until this gets done. There was another $11,000 for that surgery which were all done in Vancouver. So where does my tax dollars go, that is why I believe in private health care. I know a lot of people don't believe in it. It's just like owning things in life some cane afford and some can't, that's just the way life is. I don't believe in free health care for people on welfare or new refuges that have paid nothing into our health but the government gives it too them for nothing.

[sikwhiskey]

Originally Posted by raab

As an ex healthcare worker this is the reason I hope the PC's get the boot tomorrow. They've mismanaged everything and ****ed away tons of money on middle managers instead of investing in front line staff and infrastructure. As I said earlier in a different thread if we keep the current path the healthcare system in this province will fail.

Healthcare system has already failed. Ever waited in line in emergency, know anyone with lime disease? How much does 1 towel cost to wash with our current system??????????????

[doetracks]

Originally Posted by schmedlap

...The truly "rich" go abroad... how does forcing them to do this, instead of allowing the same private care clinics to set up right here, benefit either the average Albertan, our economy, or the system?

In my opinion...

Because, dammit, it's not FAIR that they can afford immediate treatment!

NOT FAIR!!!!!

I remember full well the cries of fairness when Ralph was floating a 2-tiered system.

But, this is what those that can, will do. And, you know what? If it comes to the point that I need something and there is some way I can pay for it, I will go elsewhere as well.

EVEN THOUGH a huge chunk of my yearly wages goes to "socialist" health care and, on top of that, the extended health care that covers what has been trimmed out of basic.

I would much rather pay for private health care and get prompt and immediate attention (when needed) than pay for this bureaucratic pile of steaming pucky that our well trained providers have to work with. I do NOT fault the front line crew.

And BANG, my heart goes out to your MIL. What a travesty.

[260 Rem]

The fact that Alberta does not have the hospital capacity to avoid the overcrowding reference in the OP is directly related to PC decisions in the nineties. They have done little to fix what they broke.
Our next government, faces a long uphill battle to set things right. Tomorrow, Albertans can set the course!

[rugatika]

Time for a total revamp of how we view healthcare as Canadians. It won't ever happen because everyone starts screeching at the thought of having to pay to get stitches or an X-ray.

Just my opinion, but gov't healthcare should only kick in for catastrophic medical needs, like cancer or major surgeries etc. You need a couple stitches, a check up, a hug for the flu, or an X-ray and a cast...it's gonna cost you a few hundred bucks or a thousand or whatever.

And I'll add, we need to be open to exploring other ideas for healthcare delivery in this country. Cuba isn't a country to emulate for anything except beaches.

[javlin101]

Wow ugly stories. GF needed a new hip at 55. Went in and assets and 3 month later done and home. Have not had a bad experience with the system yet. Just lucky I guess

[purgatory.sv]

Originally Posted by rugatika

Time for a total revamp of how we view healthcare as Canadians. It won't ever happen because everyone starts screeching at the thought of having to pay to get stitches or an X-ray.

Just my opinion, but gov't healthcare should only kick in for catastrophic medical needs, like cancer or major surgeries etc. You need a couple stitches, a check up, a hug for the flu, or an X-ray and a cast...it's gonna cost you a few hundred bucks or a thousand or whatever.

And I'll add, we need to be open to exploring other ideas for healthcare delivery in this country. Cuba isn't a country to emulate for anything except beaches.

Parts of your comment are true.

Stay healthy.

[bobalong]

Healthcare has been one of the areas that has seen the biggest decline in our province, starting with Klein, and every PC leader since. The needless pain and suffering they have caused has been mean, and nothing short of evil. It has been the same throughout the province, especially with our seniors.

I am confident that when the NDP or WR take control of our province they will return some compassion and respect to our sick and elderly, lord knows it is long overdue.

[purgatory.sv]

The health care system seems to be over administered.

That is my simple observation.

I do believe the previous administrations have had a role.

But I like fire.

Many departments in the current administration seem to have redundancy.

[purgatory.sv]

In 2011 I had an associate, who was in palliative care at the grey nuns, he and his family had compassion given to them.

It was both his family and there intervention that made the journey bearable.

[JohninAB]

Originally Posted by 260 Rem

The fact that Alberta does not have the hospital capacity to avoid the overcrowding reference in the OP is directly related to PC decisions in the nineties. They have done little to fix what they broke.
Our next government, faces a long uphill battle to set things right. Tomorrow, Albertans can set the course!

Originally Posted by bobalong

Healthcare has been one of the areas that has seen the biggest decline in our province, starting with Klein, and every PC leader since. The needless pain and suffering they have caused has been mean, and nothing short of evil. It has been the same throughout the province, especially with our seniors.

I am confident that when the NDP or WR take control of our province they will return some compassion and respect to our sick and elderly, lord knows it is long overdue.

Bingo! Not sure why so many people think Ralphie was some sort of king. His policies of slash and burn, the resulting brain drain and lack of infrastructure spending to keep pace with growth set us back years in healthcare.

[chuck-the-chimp]

Originally Posted by 260 Rem

The fact that Alberta does not have the hospital capacity to avoid the overcrowding reference in the OP is directly related to PC decisions in the nineties. They have done little to fix what they broke.
Our next government, faces a long uphill battle to set things right. Tomorrow, Albertans can set the course!

Bingo.
They're also very good at building new buildings, having elaborate grand opening ceremonies, and then running out of money before anyone moves in. Thus, multi million dollar hospitals sit partially vacant.

[DiabeticKripple]

like some people have said, if you go to a ER in any major city, for a few stitches, or something that is 100% treatable by a walk in clinic, you should have to pay for it.

only time ive been in the hospital in calgary was once for a broken arm and a concussion, but the concussion i couldve just gone to a walk in but father took me to the childrens.

[chimpac]

It is so simple,
socialism management = being stuck with a few people appointed and elected managing a huge business with a few ideas and dubious business skills.

Private enterprise ownership and management= doing a good job with tons of good ideas and skilled management or go broke and have the job done by people with better ideas and business skills.

Socialistic run businesses have never will never deliver the goods as well as private delivered goods and services.

[rugatika]

Originally Posted by chimpac

It is so simple,
socialism management = being stuck with a few people appointed and elected managing a huge business with a few ideas and dubious business skills.

Private enterprise ownership and management= doing a good job with tons of good ideas and skilled management or go broke and have the job done by people with better ideas and business skills.

Socialistic run businesses have never will never be successful.

Pretty much nails it right there.

How long does your dog have to wait before going in for any surgery? Too bad that our pets get better access to medical aid than we are ALLOWED to in our own country.

[220swifty]

Anyone else find the irony in dippers pointing out Medicare as the greatest NDP achievement when it is, time and again, the biggest election issue?

[chasingtail]

Originally Posted by 260 Rem

The fact that Alberta does not have the hospital capacity to avoid the overcrowding reference in the OP is directly related to PC decisions in the nineties. They have done little to fix what they broke.
Our next government, faces a long uphill battle to set things right. Tomorrow, Albertans can set the course!

OK PC's fault in Alberta, who's fault is it in the other 9 provinces?

[Wild&Free]

Originally Posted by chimpac

It is so simple,
socialism management = being stuck with a few people appointed and elected managing a huge business with a few ideas and dubious business skills.

Private enterprise ownership and management= doing a good job with tons of good ideas and skilled management or go broke and have the job done by people with better ideas and business skills.

Socialistic run businesses have never will never deliver the goods as well as private delivered goods and services.

Originally Posted by rugatika

Pretty much nails it right there.

How long does your dog have to wait before going in for any surgery? Too bad that our pets get better access to medical aid than we are ALLOWED to in our own country.

Originally Posted by chasingtail

OK PC's fault in Alberta, who's fault is it in the other 9 provinces?

so why don't we hire some of these managers from down south who run pay for care facilities to streamline the overhead of our facilities, of course performance based contracts on metrics such as reducing wait times, recruiting more doctors, surgeons and specialists, trimming useless island positions...?

No we just bring in someone from Ontario for 28 months...