An Urgent Conversation - Public Health Care in Medicine Hat
Full disclosure - I am on the board of the local Palliser Friends of Medicare (PFOM).
Friends of Medicare has been advocating for better health care in Alberta since 1979. They fought against extra billing, privatization, rollback of coverage etc. The only stipulation for membership has been a concern for the preservation of the five principles of Medicare: comprehensive coverage, universality, accessibility, portability of benefits, and public administration on a non-profit basis. FOM is non partisan, they not endorse or support any political parties.
We are having our annual general meeting on Nov 4 starting at 7pm. We will be electing our board and we can always use new board members. The meeting will be at
St. John's Presbyterian Church
504 2nd street - use side entrance on 5th St
Medicine Hat
Time Commitment For Board Members
Meetings - One hour per month, we take summers off
Events - Town Halls in provincial election years require about 3 hours
1-2 other events /yr, requiring 2-3 hours.
We will be electing a
Chair
Vice chair
Secretary
Treasurer
If you don’t want to be a board member, you can always volunteer - here are some opportunities
Table at community events.
Make phone calls.
Go door-to-door for health care.
Write letters, op-eds, or briefings.
Help with office tasks.
Be a social media ambassador.
Join the local chapter executive.
Memberships are $20/yr for individual, $5/yr for low income
Why I Joined
I have noticed a decline in the care we are getting. In 1989 my late husband Carl was diagnosed with testicular cancer. He saw the family doc one day, saw a specialist a few days later and had surgery the next day. When the second CT scan showed it had spread on a Wednesday, by Monday he was up in Calgary at the Tom Baker Cancer Clinic getting chemo.
Fast forward nearly 30 years later. Carl was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. It took weeks to see a specialist, it took months to get the cancer staged. Medicine Hat had its own cancer centre by then but we did not have a full time oncologist, we had to wait for one to come from Red Deer two days a week.
Over 30 years ago, my last two children were born by emergency c-section; staff was called in early both times due to fetal distress.
Did You Know?
For a few weeks in Medicine Hat this year, we did not even have any OB/GYNs (Obstetrician/ Gynecologist). That is a scary situation - the hospital did have a contingency plan for general surgeons to handle anything that came up but the OB/GYNs are experts in the field; they know more about what is safe for baby and mother than the general surgeons do.
Once upon a time, our hospital had patient lounges where they could go watch TV or socialize on their floor - now those rooms are being used for patient care - they put hospital beds in them. ER care rooms are being taken up by people waiting for a bed upstairs so they can be admitted.
Once upon a time, medical staff had time to spend with patients, now they are stretched so thin that they can only do the bare minimum. Bedridden patients sit alone in their rooms.
Once upon a time, the hospital used to be the safest place to be. Now patients need to have extra help because medical staff are so overworked. There is no physiotherapy or occupational therapy on weekends so patients end up staying longer in hospital, costing more money. There is a shortage of diagnostic imaging technicians, respiratory therapists, etc. Staff is getting burned out and demoralized. Some are leaving the province.
I fear for my family if they need medical care.
I fear getting sick.
Medicine Hat Regional Hospital (MHRH) serves far more than just Medicine Hat - we get patients from all over the area, including some from Saskatchewan - after all, the Saskatchewan border is only 30 minutes away. When we are full here, it means that we cannot take patients from the feeder towns.
Dr Paul Parks
Dr Parks is a local ER physician as well as the former head of the Alberta Medical Association (AMA). He is not getting paid to do this tour with FOM, he is volunteering his time; he is a passionate advocate for health care in our province. (I am a wee bit biased - I ran into Dr Parks in our ER when Carl was ill and was impressed by his compassion and professionalism. )
Tom and I interviewed him and we learned a lot in 30 minutes.
Come and have a conversation with Dr Parks, he wants to hear what your views are on health care in our province. It does not matter where you sit on the political spectrum, health care affects everybody. We need to get together and talk about the challenges and the road ahead.
