Dr Paul Parks Sounds the Alarm on Health Care in Alberta
Dr Paul Parks at the podium, sitting to the right is Chris Gallaway, Executive Director of Friends of Medicare, Edmonton.
Over 200 people packed into Taylor Hall at St John’s church Tuesday night to hear Dr Paul Parks speak about a crisis in health care in Alberta. Dr Parks is a Medicine Hat ER physician, he has worked in Alberta for over 25 years.
Parks is touring the province with the Friends of Medicare to get people talking to each other about health care. He wants people talking in the workplace, talking around the supper table, talking with friends and family members about their experiences with health care because health care workers are not allowed to talk about individual cases. Parks says the more people are talking, the more the government will have to listen.
Dr. Parks says he wants this movement to be non-partisan, non-political.
Parks spoke about an 11 year old in Edmonton who had his cancer treatment cancelled because the hospital did not have enough beds. He spoke about the shortage of health care workers that we have and that opening up for-profit clinics will not help the situation. Parks said that you can have all the equipment in the world but unless you have someone to operate it, they are useless.
Dr. Parks told the crowd that surgical suites in the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital (MHRH) sit empty because we do not have enough anesthetists. He spoke about issues such as ER closures, lack of obstetricians which puts mothers and babies at risk when childbirth does not go well.
After Dr. Parks spoke, members of the audience shared their stories.
Here is the upcoming events for Friends of Medicare
Developing story, more to come.
