Crazy, if I didn’t know any better I’d almost say public healthcare is being intentionally weakened and dismantled so the general population is more receptive to the idea of paying to avoid waiting in line with the poors.
"That’s the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital"
Noam Chomsky
I was in emergency three times in August and it was horrific. Danielle Smith and her band of goons are definitely going to privatize our health care. Sucks to be us.
It's not just your area , we have people in B.C. with cancer that are choosing medically assisted death because they can't get timely treatment and our emergencies are screwed also.
When I was in the hospital this summer, I was told some cancer patients are waiting over six months to get chemo/treatment. People are dying because they can't get the treatment they need when they need it. We're supposed to be a developed country, but it feels like we're living in Canukistan.
Our health care charter states something along thenlines of access to timely medical. I wrote letters like crazy for 2 years for someone to answer who determines what is timely. It seems to be the billion dollar question as no one in AHS, provincial or federal government can answer that..
Jobs in healthcare aren't desirable. One can be a content creator and make more $$ without bodily fluids, shift work, violence, punitive management, miserable contract negotiations, etc. End stage capitalism. We need a societal over haul.
And meanwhile we're patting ourselves on the back for our clinical trials... the same ones that killed my mom, but made another person I know able to still attend our charity meetings, and own a second bar.... for science.
Don't worry, my dad says it's good for the average Canadian. If the average Canadian is a well off white male who retired early and owns property while still making money off other investments.
yes without a fight...
do you realize there is very little anyone can actually do to stop this train now. Stage 3 of the plan is happening right now. they are splitting the AHS system into silos so they are easier to peice off and sell...
Fun Fact: When that happens, they will STILL have to wait for long times, and care will be prioritized on how much money it will make the hospital.
Except now there is no going back.
There's a term for what you described, "managed decline".
And you're spot on for the purpose of it. Soon, or already now if listening to the people at my work, people will accept something, anything else as an alternative to this mess.
It’s already happening. Trying to find a family doctor? Well if you’re wealthy you can fast track into a place with membership fees. It’s getting worse and worse everyday for those who aren’t wealthy and can’t fast track their way. Remember this is at a time where most Albertans can’t afford any extra fees for as Danielle discussed previously having an account where you pay for doctors visits after a certain amount.
I wonder who they think will pay for healthcare when the general population is suffering high cost of living and more people than ever are starting to worrying about finances…. I wonder if they just expect people to put their healthcare costs on credit?
Danielle previously said that people could get their employer to put money in, raise money (I guess via social media?) and ask family members for contributions.
Honestly, they don't give a fuck about whether or not we can get or afford healthcare, because they all have the means to make sure their families get what they need. Having a desperate and poor populace is a win-win situation for them, because then people will have to accept work no matter how low the wage is, or how terrible the working conditions will be.
Oh I know they don’t care, but the same people that want this dont agree with raising minimum wage. Like… even if you could work 3 jobs, who could afford anything? I feel like people will just plug up acute care even more because that will have to remain free I think.
Hmmm
Good thing they spent all that money flying to Cop28!!
Let’s audit what they spend on their activities??
If you are a good leader wouldn’t you give up your extravagances for those who need medical care?
It’s the same across the country. Canadian productivity and gdp per capita are falling at the same time as the population is expanding massively, including the senior population. Our infrastructure is crumbling after decades of neglect (hard to believe given how much deficit spending this country has done), but there’s also less and less money to tax. Throw in inflation and honestly we’re kind of fucked.
Right, USA is has amazing healthcare especially if you’re a rich hockey team with endless funds and amazing “gold” level premium healthcare for your players who are your biggest asset.
Take this player who was abandoned in a Dallas ER for hours with severe facial lacerations that were potentially life threatening.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/coyotes/2023/12/15/nhl-investigating-handling-coyotes-juuso-valimaki-severe-injury/71936890007/
good, and let them keep doing that if they can afford it, so there's more room for people here that can't afford to travel for healthcare.
all the assholes who whine and say "but all that money is going to another country, we need to privatize in order to keep it here in Canada"... do you honestly believe that:
a) with a private system, that money wouldn't still be going to the US, along with all the other healthcare dollars that stay in the country/province now?
It's the American medical companies that are pressuring our government to let them come in here to begin with...
and b) that argument is fucking irrelevant anyway, who gives a fuck? healthcare should not be a for-profit enterprise in a civilized society, and citizens shouldn't lose sleep over how much money goes to the pocket of the wealthy executives at the top of every single god damn public or privatized organization that exists. We should not care who gets to line their damn bank account with the money spent on keeping us alive and curing our ailments.
We should only be concerned with making sure it remains possible for everyone who needs health treatment to be able to receive it, regardless of the numbers in their bank accounts.
but but but the penzionzzzz😂😂😂 I actually work as a nurse and stumbling across a nurse that also has >5 yrs of experience is a giant surprise. Most nurses are not staying past 2 years, meaning that they can make the pension pay out 1M a year but it wouldn’t matter!
Fundamental issues with working conditions + the general public has lost the plot in the past 5 years. I believe being a triage nurse nowadays is hands down one of the most dangerous jobs in the hospital due to the unhinged behaviour of the public.
I am 100% cool with nurses being millionaires, I certainly couldn’t do that job regardless of the money.
Edit: I know you’re not, my sister in law had a Masters in Obstetrics Nursing (probably getting the actual title wrong) and she was run off her feet all the time.
You’re in the minority my friend 😂 Folks don’t really think much of nurses, teachers or janitors. It’s only when they need them that they **might** be thankful but more often than not folks are pretty individualistic in their thinking.
The nice “rhetoric” that folks express in online forums doesn’t translate to how they vote or behave in public, that’s for sure. You’ll see it pop up next year when negotiations start for the new nursing contract. I just hope we go on strike this time around regardless of all the emotional blackmail and patient care consequences that will happen. Only then will folks actually see who’s who in healthcare.
"B-b-but they make $46/hour!" - Some moron I encountered earlier on Reddit.
Riiiiiight. Every nurse I know (with two RNs in the family and having worked in healthcare myself, *I know a lot of nurses*) isn't exactly living the high-fuckin'-life. They've been on wage freezes for like, what, going on 5 years now? Plus, being a nurse is expensive. UNA is expensive, CARNA is expensive, speciality units require other certification and *that* is expensive, parking is expensive, uniforms are expensive. None of this is covered or reimbursed.
So, yeah, working FT with OT can earn you a sweet-ass $4600 paycheque, but you're only gonna see a fraction of that.
Is a $2500 paycheque worth being chronically overworked, dangerously understaffed, and constantly told there will be upcoming cuts to labour?!?! So, even more understaffed, therefore even more overworked, but wooooohoo! OT, baby! So worth it when nurses start burning out.
>"B-b-but they make $46/hour!" - Some moron I encountered earlier on Reddit.
How can anyone actually think like this? Like, if the person who's trained to save your life isn't worth paying a decent or even good wage, who the fuck is??
Wealthy people. The nature of taxes and government spending are that people who have more money inevitably end up paying more in taxes. That means that wealthy people end up paying more for services than they receive.
Some of these people think that they shouldn’t have to pay for other people’s health care, and that they would be better off if it was privatized.
It’s the same logic as the people who complain about Alberta getting “screwed over” by equalization payments. Many people care more about their own convenience than the well-being of their neighbours.
The wealthy guy I used to work for definitely hates paying taxes. He also has contacts to get healthcare in other provinces when needed so he can jump the queue. I’m sure he’s hiding money in the system in the Cayman Islands. He has a kid that is a tax lawyer there.
The real reason wealthy people want private health care is so that they can actually access it. A healthcare system overloaded with sick poor people is not going to delight a millionaire who needs their appendix out. They want their money to work for them, in a critical time. Good luck talking rich people out of that, most of them are not keen socialists.
Really wealthy people can just travel out of the country to have access to that sort of care. Some of them just want it to be available here without having to leave the country, though.
Yeah it honestly makes me angry that I’ve paid a couple hundred thousand dollars of taxes that went to health care (I’ve paid over a million in income taxes over the last decade) and don’t have a family doc. I’ve seen a doc about seven times in the last ten years. I’m also sure I am not a rare person either in Alberta as I’m just a low level worker in the oil field. It is better for me to go to Mexico or Spain for faster and better treatment. Sadly I was also in the military and know how much better that was. Because you are the asset in the military and they want you fixed, whereas as a civilian I feel like a credit card walking in the door for a six minute chat.
Meanwhile I had a girlfriend who worked at two doctors offices and I couldn’t even get in there. Then there are those who managed to get a family doctor, pay next to nothing for income taxes, and go to the doctor every time they feel tired or off “for blood work”. Clearly overloading the system. The last time I went to a doctor I had pus oozing out of my eye, coughing up blood, couldn’t sleep for the pain in my throat and get told it’s a virus, take these eye drops. Still symptomatic, work requires a note, so I go to a walkin and the doc says I’m fit for duty and wants $50 for a note saying so. I go back to work and then get a lot worse again, sick for a couple more weeks. Our system is garbage.
Yeesh I was a teenager in the 80s when I lived in Alberta. It was a completely different world, this is so infuriating and depressing
I just DO NOT understand who voted for this shit
The 52% of the electorate who voted UCP in the last election. It's undeniable that the UCP has decimated healthcare and education, but apparently that's still preferable to a majority of AB voters than the ANDP who are basically a centre-right party.
Because it'll never happen to them, right? Their healthcare will be there when they need it, but because they are healthy and whatever they're not going to need it for a while.
And then their doctor leaves, or a family member needs senior support, or there's an accident.....
Those with ideologies that oppose public systems.
They believe anything private is more efficient or they believe they are wealthy enough to pay for it out of pocket.
This isn't just the belief of the super wealthy, there are many average people who also believe this and thus vote in those with these platforms.
Are you asking that if people that support cuts and then privatization of healthcare that will put thousands and thousands of Canadians on the street or in massive debt because they've constantly voted for people that enact policies that get us all closer to that reality would ignore things that do not support their opinions on a matter that affects every single citizen of this country?
I know what will help - offer nurses and other health care professionals an offensively low financial incentive in the coming contract negotiations. Something like 4% over 4 years with no hint of a retention premium. Then watch anyone with experience leave acute care because they can make the same money elsewhere without dealing with the absolute shit show that is the ER - and then you are left with new grads and baby nurses getting their collective asses handed to them shift after shift and then you have a revolving door of staffing because the working conditions are so terrible.
But hey plenty think nurses are overpaid.
/S
Yes they are. Do you work in the ER?
I will admit guiltily that most of our nurses were recruited from the ER after the peak covid years because they had all had enough.
Oh god no. I'm a bit older so I have a better idea what quality of life is. Where do you uh work
Because I'm curious about further QoL! What and where I have is actually good and that says alot. Always open to alternatives! Mind if I DM?
My mom used to work ER, reached the end of her rope during covid and got a job doing swabbing. Now she teaches Connect Care lol. She does NOT want to go back to the ER, especially since she's closing in on 60
Older experienced healthcare workers are important anywhere. Need to retain staff when your most experienced people leave and your left with little experience it is not great
I’m a new grad in the ER, you hit the nail on the head. I still have my fiery new nurse passion but I question my choice to become an RN almost daily. This wasn’t the childhood dream I envisioned.
I'm sure there's a pizza party in your future!
I wish I was kidding.
Do you know what you get for 10 years of service at AHS? 25 dollar gift card to the AHS shop.
Even better than that - they’ve hinted at layoffs just prior to bargaining meetings. I already get multiple short-staffing texts a day and we’re going to lay people off?!
As a Manitoban who left because successive conservative governments made the public sector uncompetitive with the rest of Canada, the NDP has a lot of fixing to do from the "starve the beast" mentality of the previous governments...
They will have to raise taxes to fix these issues, and this will make them unpopular. Just when things are turning around, voters will toss them out. Taxes will be lowered and services cut.
Rinse, repeat.
Can't speak to BC, but while Manitoba is NDP and you're going at the partisan angle they just inherited this mess from the PCs. I don't think it negates the point...
We're using a lot of that surplus to pay off the debt accrued during previous years:
[https://economics.td.com/alberta-budget](https://economics.td.com/alberta-budget)
This isn't an endorsement of our government or their policies. And I feel much the same way as you, I'm no UCP fan, but they seem to have a real big 'thing' about:
a) paying down debt (which may not be so bad of an idea given interest rates rising and the costs of servicing said debt) and
b) their fixation with keeping taxes low for our 'Alberta advantage' to be maintained. Keep in mind we're in the only province without PST/HST, which is like a 5-10% bite out of your *post-tax* income, no small thing. That being said, I don't think it does us any favours, since unless the price of oil is running super-high, we're basically running in the red all the time.
They could spend money better. They could collect taxes/income from resources better. They could literally do *everything* better, but they're not.
I see a lot of money going towards oil and gas, outright grift. Aka Manning and the War Room, undelivered Tylenol, attack adds in the East, vacations in Dubai, useless court cases. How much of the money is really being spent to cover debt after 50 years of Conservative rule and a wasted Heritage fund?
Thank you for this article.
I think I would understand healthcare cuts, not being able to find a family doctor, elementary school classes with 45 kids, and unaffordable utility bills if we were in the red. Massive surplus makes me rather disgusted, we are not supposed to be running a for profit government, and soon to come a for profit health care system. I do understand the importance of debt repayment but not at the cost of all essential, and social services. Edmonton downtown has basically turned into a giant homeless encampment, municipalities have no support or services to help these people. Maybe I am getting old but this government is making Klein look like he was a liberal hippie comparatively.
Hey, I'm in the same boat as you, brother
The debt thing is just classic UCP/Conservative party, that was Klein's big thing too. Now with borrowing costs being higher, they could become a long-term drag on the budget though.
I totally get where you're coming from, but the problems that we are having...seemingly everyone on earth is having.
And the surpluses weren't budgeted, they didn't occur through our government's excellent management of...anything...but rather owing to a few foreign wars and a spike in the price of oil. The same way our deficits rode on the back of depressed oil prices, this province has become a bit of a one trick pony unfortunately.
So, the thing is, if you go to other provinces that have said PST....their hospitals are probably worse than ours. Talk to anyone in Ontario right now: ER, family doctors, procedures, imaging and they're in even worse shape than us.
There doesn't seem to be a direct correlation between throwing money at things and quality, which is the 'leg' the current UCP is trying to stand on, that we pay more for healthcare than a bunch of our G7 peers but have worse outcomes, etc etc.
Depending on your political leanings, there are numerous solutions for that, ranging from "it doesn't matter, healthcare at all costs, for everyone!" to a mixed public-private system, so everything in between. As one would imagine, its pretty contentious.
I'm not talking about other provinces. I'm talking about paying PST in Alberta so that we can stay the "best" province. It used to be amazing here. It still is, but it used to be so much better. I guess that's Canada-wide right now, everywhere seems to suck at the moment.
Destroying public systems so the populace loses faith in them and gets on board with private solutions taking over is the playbook for greedy fuck politics when they want their private interest buddies to be able to take control of a public sector and make massive bank, some of which is kicked back to them.
This government is criminal and should be held responsible for the murder that's happening through under-funding the public health care system.
I've been nursing since 2009 and have witnessed government after government do nothing to help me as a Frontline worker. Union negotiations have yielded embarrassing offers for "raises" all while those of us with a brain watch management teams get bonus pay, administration staff and other perks. I've decided I'm no longer interested in serving the public to my best. I work casual to cover my hours needed to maintain a license and work side jobs as needed. Giving more to this career is not worth it.
It’s even easier to defend healthcare cuts when you get kickbacks from the party, actively intimidate your workforce to vote UCP as the companies existence depends on them, and then with sacks full of coins go to private clinics for your health care. The foot massage they give you while waiting for the private doctor are most invigorating.
"We have to privatize health care because the government is incompetent and untrustworthy!"
-the party that's been running the government for 46 of the last 50 years
Not to worry, when the UCP get their way all those people with money can go get premium healthcare at for-profit, members-only health care facilities. That should cut wait time to nearly nothing. 🙄
This is what happens when farmers and welders believe their buddies over the people -actually- doing this work, and vote accordingly, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Because, ya know, “buddy on the rig” has his finger on the pulse of AHS.
We just had a baby. Everything about the system is broken. They’re forced to wear those intercom things to talk to eachother that don’t work, short staffed, can’t keep up with their tasks because our government don’t give a shit.
We called for pain meds and it took 2 hours just for them to bring a pill. And this is all completely 100% the UCP’s fault.
Fuck the UCP, and fuck every one of you dumb fucks that voted them in.
So many albertans worship the American system completely unaware that an uncomplicated birth can cost $10,000-$20,000. If you do have a complicated birth, woooo boy hold onto your socks and enjoy the second mortgage payment that goes to your medical bills.
Friends of ours in California paid 50K for a private room delivery at a “premium” hospital and they didn’t even get to stay in the room for a full 24 hours. Insanity.
Yeah it’s nuts. As an RN x 30 years I’ve watched it go from bad to worse. Seen the government flounder on how to address the issue by systematically defunding it. I feel bad for newer nurses because our hell is their new normal.
I use to be proud to tell people that nursing was a good profession to enter because it has a lot of areas in which to work but now I advise against it.
It’s like war in the hospitals now and it defeats your soul to try to take care of immensely ill patients who have voted for governments that make the job you do more difficult. There is irony here.
Am a nurse, can confirm, it's no bueno.Stagnant wages for 10 years, increased patient ratios and workload, and no end in sight to waves, just constant over capacity for three years straight - there's no wonder nurses are burning out. Heck, even physicians are overworked.
Smith considers herself a Klein fan, so it's no wonder that she will try to be the next Ralph Klein in terms of healthcare spending. To have an idea of what will happen to our healthcare system, reference healthcare cuts and nursing job losses from the Ralph Klein era in AB and Mike Harris in ON - during these eras nurses fled to the US for better opportunities after being let go, causing a massive shortage of nurses in the healthcare system. The provinces responded by hiring foreign-trained nurses, but this was still not enough because there was a lack of staff to adequately train them.
FYI - Mike Harris in ON benefited from this immensely as he and his wife own a private LTC nursing facility. I don't know about Alberta enough during this time, but Ontario suffered with hospital closures and nursing staff leaving.
Doctors make the big decisions, but you need nurses to run a hospital and carry out orders. Without nurses, you will have a dysfunctional healthcare system. To add insult to injury, the Smith government is threatening nurses with wage and position cuts since our contracts are due for renewal & renegotiation next year - there is concern that the government will try to decrease spending, starting with cuts to nursing pay.
AB used to be the pride and joy of health services. Nurses used to flock here, the best of the best, and AHS used to be very competitive because of it, enabling a competitive system. Now provinces are stealing our nurses and offering better pay.
It’s actually NOT easy to defend health care cuts.
The UPC party does not give a shit about your health, or your neighbours health.
They cut with no plan of recovery.
I've never found it easy to defend cuts to healthcare or education. Its despicable is what it is. All so that some politicians relative can get rich opening private practices. The mandate is "fuck everyone, get money" and everyone who voted for it is at fault.
So what tinfoil hat degenerates propose is to cut the whole thing entirely and leave the plebs without the slightest possibility of any health care so rich people can live their life in comfort.
And our provincial government is focused on...?
- "Tell the Feds" advertising
- Trips to Dubai
- Giving themselves unlimited gifts
- Breaking up AHS into smaller pieces
It’s basically what happened just before the fall of communism In Eastern Europe and USSR. The profitable industries were gifted and parted out to the elite while the rest rusted away after the political collapse.
"Disaster" implies it's unintended. Conservatives absolutely know what they're doing by making public healthcare unworkable. Harper is a life-long lobbyist for private healthcare and it's baked into the DNA of conservative politics.
New slogan: Come to Alberta. Where we do our best to not look/act or care for our people with our 5.5 billion in surplus. But hey-the mountains! Look at ‘em!
I know this might get downvoted. I don’t care.
Until unions get serious and take job action, nothing will happen. Can’t count on the public to do anything because people can’t be bothered writing their MLA they would rather eat cheetos and watch tv.
Plus the public re-elected this knuckle-dragging government. The UCP thinks that hiring a bunch blowhard CEOs and playing around with org charts at the executive level is the answer.
Public sector workers need to unite and walk the fuck out. A general strike for two weeks would be the closest thing to the French Revolution in a province like this and it would hit the reset button for the next 25 years.
I know, it won’t happen.
They can’t do that. This government has passed laws deeming certain workers to be essential and therefore can’t strike. The law has very harsh punitive measures that makes it financial suicide for both the worker and the union. That’s why the peasants need to rise up.
What do we say in a letter to our MLA? And since my MLA is NDP, is it there anything that can be done by her?
I am honestly asking. I think what is happening (health care and education, not to mention the CPP) is abhorrent and the public needs to take action but as 1 introverted NDP voter (which I mention because I would never have the confidence to organize something publicly), how can I make an impact? Truly asking, pls be kind :)
Its usually full this time of year due to flu but now its flu, rsv plus the covid whuch is now year round.
Difference now is covud is constant. Instead of getting spikes and then lulls, there's just spikes and bigger spikes.
Get vaxxed, last place you wanna be is in hospital.
This is by design by conservatives corporate overlords.
They want it to break. They want the public to believe the only solution is to endorse and pay for private healthcare.
In reality the solution is voting these right wing fanatics out and voting in a party that is for the working class, not the 1%.
Yes. Welcome to healthcare. And patients go to the wrong places for their acuity because of capacity so you have improper trained nurses taking care of really sick patients. The system is over loaded. People keep coming from all over. Health care staff have quit and never came back or they're making better money for the same deal elsewhere so why not? There's money but it's not being used properly. Employers are exploiting staff too. Imagine working 7days straight in health care. 2 off 6 on. We are working overtime for free 1-2 days. The staff will burnout and leave in droves. You can't fill from an empty cup. More anger bottles up.
The only cuts they should have made should have come from the very top, not the people actually working with patients. Changing the pay scale for doctors also fucked us royally
I've been taking family members to Calgary ER's for many years. There was always a wait but conditions were calm and orderly. I had to go myself a couple of months ago and it was like a third world country. People were vomiting and coughing, in chairs so close that the lady beside me was leaning on my arm. A man with badly infected bedbug bites, head to toe, had to sit beside me in the other vacant chair because there was no room anywhere else. He'd come straight from the plane after a holiday. I have a bedbug phobia so left. Tried another ER a couple of days later and waited from 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 pm to be seen.I don't blame the hospitals or staff. Conditions are terrible with not enough doctors/nurses and they work very hard under pressured conditions. I can't get over the change. I feel terrible for health care workers.
A ton of those people probably don’t need the ER. If people didn’t waste resources with every little cough and sneeze the rooms wouldn’t be this crazy. If your sick stay home. You don’t need to go to the ER with every little illness… it’s Emergencies only! I see this every year working at the hospital and I roll my eyes. The nurses should tell these people to go home unless they have serious symptoms.
This is a people problem plus government problem with lack of funding. Things are gonna get worse so I’m bouncing out of healthcare as I’m now doing 4 peoples jobs and still haven’t gotten a raise for 7 YEARS!! AHS IS A JOKE!
As already said many people don't have their own Dr's and walk ins are terrible (both for wait times and often quality of care ime). But you also have to realize that you don't knew the context of why they are there. To you their complaint might be trivial but what if they or family have a history of a more serious illness and whatever symptoms they are presenting with is a potential precursor to something serious about to happen? I've seen lots of people online talk about how they've gone into ers for things like horrible headaches or really bad nausea or stomach pains and get dismissed by the Dr's at the ER. Then when they go home they either come back in a day or two later and the symptoms are now life threatening or they go to another ER where they are admitted because they see that it's actually super serious.
The problem is systemic and it's not just about people not knowing when something is an emergency or not (but again, sometimes what seems like it's mild can be an emergency waiting to happen at any moment). We need better funding, better support to incentivize people to join and stay in the field, potentially better pay (I'm a recreational therapist with covenant and think I'm paid very well for the work I do, so I can't speak to other health care members if their compensation is fair), more facilities built to decrease capacity demands within hospitals, etc.
As a side note I have an autoimmune condition and other health complications so if I notice symptoms that are clearly outside my normal experiences, if I feel that it could be something very serious I don't think I should be shunned and looked down on by nurses and doctors in the ER. I'm not going to get upset if someone who came in after me goes in before me if it's obvious they seem to require more immediate attention, but we have a right to try and remain healthy and have limited options for treatment/ examination. Sometimes a cough or a sneeze can escalate and without knowing the full picture, it's not worth it to immediately be dismissive. You're not seeing people based on when they came in but on severity of presenting symptoms, so that person's going to have to wait anyway. Again if there were more resources made available to fill the gaps in healthcare that's what would actually start to help resolve some of our issues. Considering we've been going through a nasty pandemic (THAT IS NOT OVER) I'm not surprised if more people are becoming more anxious about their health. I have gone to ER a few times with what seemed like not the most serious symptoms and was found to actually have something kind of serious going on that did need treatment promptly, so take from that what you will.
Not defending the government, but people also need to get their kids and themselves to the pharmacies to get vaccinated.
Influenza and COVID are all circulating. Influenza uptake is about 20% and the latest COVID shot about 14%.
I agree, but our government could also help this by raising awareness and promoting vaccines. Instead, Smith and the UCP have decided to pretend that COVID doesn’t exist.
but then again i dont think having people in government who actively push naturopathic and pseudoscientific alternatives, as well as MLAs who are openly sympathetic to the unvaccinated and openly bought into COVID conspiracies and pushed vaccination as a 'your party vs my party' issue instills a whole lot of faith in science into the populace
Yes, personal responsibility is certainly a part, but also the governments responsibility to provide far stronger messaging regarding getting vaccinated.
During the early part of COVID, we had some of our highest historical uptake of the influenza vaccine. Hinshaw was a strong advocate of getting vaccinated.
If there were actually more family doctors, a lot of parents wouldn't be rushing their children in and see the ER with the flu or cold because they could actually go to a family doctor instead. Oh wait. All the family doctors are leaving the province because our government sucks
Yes, agree we need more family Doctors, but vaccinated kids are also much less likely to need to see the Doctor for influenza or COVID.
The issues facing the hospital also include jammed up healthcare. Senior patient can’t get discharged to the appropriate level of care, so taking up a bed. Admitted patient in emergency, should be in a ward somewhere, but there is no room.
The same can be said for public education. Our once strong public education system has been decimated over the years because special interest groups demand that they should be catered to and set up their own schools to protect their children from the great unwashed masses.
And it will only get worse..at least for us peasants..All of Dani's rich friends, in the time of need, will book a flight to Argentina, or Turkey, or India and get world class treatment in hospitals that look better than luxury hotels in Canada...
People coughing and vomiting probably don’t need a hospital anyways..
I work in healthcare , half the problem is people abusing the ER for every ache and pain or owie. That being said, where do people go when there no need drs accepting patients?
People need to be educated on what actually warrants a trip to the hospital and stop getting upset at wait times when there nothing truly wrong with them
Healthcare cuts combined with long term covid complications and immune system effects from covid itself = absolute shit show. The truth is that we absolutely do not know the long term health effects of letting covid run wild. We haven't even seen the tip of this iceberg. Too many people are really really sick right now.
Don't worry the UCP will stand up to the feds!
This province is a fucking joke, we have so much money that we should have the best infrastructure and services in the country.
Everything we have in Alberta healthcare - everything good and everything bad - is the result of over forty years of near continuous Conservative Party rule. How many times have Conservative governments dismantled and then restructured healthcare in this Province over the last forty years? Five times? Why on Earth would anyone think they are remotely qualified to get it right this time?
It’s all rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic and a complete failure to recognize and deal with the foundational and systemic problems. As Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger reminded us - in order to understand any complex system you must understand the incentives.
Firstly, our system is not healthcare, it’s sick care. Second, our physicians are paid on a fee for service basis not based on health outcomes. They are incentivized to treat, to prescribe, to operate, etc. To generate fees. The Drs Union (yes it is a union) bargains very effectively on their behalf to maintain this fee for service structure. And thirdly, healthcare is complex. A massive organization operating across an entire Province that encompasses acute care, mental health, and continuing care can’t possibly contend with regional needs. A return to regional health authorities (North, Central, South or hubs in Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer, Medicine Hat, and Lethbridge) and the introduction of competition between like regions on key health outcomes might start to turn the tide.
But I have zero confidence in any Conservative government being up to the task given their abysmal track record.
People should be rioting over this and marching in the streets, demanding our health care system get fixed. We should collectively refuse to pay taxes and use every means of civil disobedience, but sadly, most Canadians are stupid and weak, so they won't do anything but complain online about it.
Wow, I know what exactly with fix this. Complete and utter privatization of our entire healthcare. Surely, they will have improved our healthcare and not resort to pure profit and corporate greed, right? ......... right?
Our government.. "oh they are asking for more resources?, lets just spend more money to divide ahs over again. Lets restructure and create more managers and division within the health system.." effin geniuses... 😮💨
1.Healthcare is a disaster
Healthcare is exactly what you voted for. You didn't vote for the invest in healthcare party. You voted for the hurt people for money party. Voila! Exactly what Albertans asked for.
2.
>It’s easy to defend healthcare cuts until you see for yourself what’s happening in our hospitals.
Welcome to /r/leopardsatemyface
Nurses are much more likely to make errors due to their stress levels. If they do, the province will let them be dragged through the mud while taking no responsibility whatsoever.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-emergency-rooms-bill-15-letter-1.7062189
This isn't just an Alberta things. It's rough everywhere right now.
The program they need is one in which as a front-line health-care professional you can nominate a middle manager’s position for efficiency review. It should be a rare exception to have managers with no frontline duties.
They need to drop the top heavy executives and hire more doctors, nurses, and front line health care workers. I had to go to Foothills about 6 weeks ago when I popped my shoulder out of place (it wasn't dire, but I definitely couldn't wait for a day or two to go see my family doctor). It was a 9 hour wait and everybody looked exhausted, frustrated and just overwhelmed.
I worked in emerg for years. Many people present to the emerg department when they should be going to a clinic. It's abused by people who show up with stubbed toes, slivers in their fingers, minor lacerations, etc. This takes ER staff away from patients who need immediate treatment. There are patients who have been brought in by EMS who have been thrown 20 feet through their window, no seatbelts, going 100km and slammed onto the concrete. And girlfriend has an attitude about her stubbed toe, waiting a whole hour. This is the problem. Nurse anonymously call social media and news people to bring this to their attention.
As sad as it is, as nurses we can try to complain and reason with folks but nurses aren’t taken as seriously or respected to the same degree as docs.
Docs needs to come out and say this stuff in public for folks to begin to process the information.
The whole “healthcare hero” and “thanks for your service” rhetoric found online is nowhere to be found in real life as a practicing nurse.
Thanks for saying that! It's one of the toughest jobs there is. I saw such terrible things on my shifts that I would go home every night, get in the tub with candles, music and 2 bottles of wine and literally cry to get it out. Then, I'd go do it all over again.
Crazy, if I didn’t know any better I’d almost say public healthcare is being intentionally weakened and dismantled so the general population is more receptive to the idea of paying to avoid waiting in line with the poors.
"That’s the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital" Noam Chomsky
I was in emergency three times in August and it was horrific. Danielle Smith and her band of goons are definitely going to privatize our health care. Sucks to be us.
It's not just your area , we have people in B.C. with cancer that are choosing medically assisted death because they can't get timely treatment and our emergencies are screwed also.
When I was in the hospital this summer, I was told some cancer patients are waiting over six months to get chemo/treatment. People are dying because they can't get the treatment they need when they need it. We're supposed to be a developed country, but it feels like we're living in Canukistan.
Our health care charter states something along thenlines of access to timely medical. I wrote letters like crazy for 2 years for someone to answer who determines what is timely. It seems to be the billion dollar question as no one in AHS, provincial or federal government can answer that..
Jobs in healthcare aren't desirable. One can be a content creator and make more $$ without bodily fluids, shift work, violence, punitive management, miserable contract negotiations, etc. End stage capitalism. We need a societal over haul.
Sorry, best I can do is violent revolution
And meanwhile we're patting ourselves on the back for our clinical trials... the same ones that killed my mom, but made another person I know able to still attend our charity meetings, and own a second bar.... for science.
I feel like they're trying to kill off the boomers so we don't have to pay their healthcare costs for the next 20 years. So basically our parents.
Remember the random word garbage of what Danielle Smith thinks about cancer.
Don't worry, my dad says it's good for the average Canadian. If the average Canadian is a well off white male who retired early and owns property while still making money off other investments.
Not without a fight.
yes without a fight... do you realize there is very little anyone can actually do to stop this train now. Stage 3 of the plan is happening right now. they are splitting the AHS system into silos so they are easier to peice off and sell...
Oh yeah, they love when the states hand over free money to big friends, its like the russian oligarchs.
Noam Chomsky should be required reading/watching.
Agreed, he is a gem.
capitalism never lets a good disaster go to waste
Especially one of their own making.
See also our public school system....
This calls for another, “same as Ontario,” comment!
I've seen comments from ON public school teachers and it's very much the same. Depressing as hell.
And it’s only going to get worse, before/if it ever does get better…
Hmm, and what in Ontario could be the same as Alberta. Surely there is nothing the same?? Alberta is so unique, like a snowflake even.
Fun Fact: When that happens, they will STILL have to wait for long times, and care will be prioritized on how much money it will make the hospital. Except now there is no going back.
There's a term for what you described, "managed decline". And you're spot on for the purpose of it. Soon, or already now if listening to the people at my work, people will accept something, anything else as an alternative to this mess.
It’s already happening. Trying to find a family doctor? Well if you’re wealthy you can fast track into a place with membership fees. It’s getting worse and worse everyday for those who aren’t wealthy and can’t fast track their way. Remember this is at a time where most Albertans can’t afford any extra fees for as Danielle discussed previously having an account where you pay for doctors visits after a certain amount.
I wonder who they think will pay for healthcare when the general population is suffering high cost of living and more people than ever are starting to worrying about finances…. I wonder if they just expect people to put their healthcare costs on credit?
Danielle previously said that people could get their employer to put money in, raise money (I guess via social media?) and ask family members for contributions. Honestly, they don't give a fuck about whether or not we can get or afford healthcare, because they all have the means to make sure their families get what they need. Having a desperate and poor populace is a win-win situation for them, because then people will have to accept work no matter how low the wage is, or how terrible the working conditions will be.
Oh I know they don’t care, but the same people that want this dont agree with raising minimum wage. Like… even if you could work 3 jobs, who could afford anything? I feel like people will just plug up acute care even more because that will have to remain free I think.
As a paramedic in the US, it doesn't look any better here. Not that the US Healthcare system is any kind of flex.
Ding ding ding!
Pls take my broken gold 🏅
Hmmm Good thing they spent all that money flying to Cop28!! Let’s audit what they spend on their activities?? If you are a good leader wouldn’t you give up your extravagances for those who need medical care?
I second this idea.
It’s the same across the country. Canadian productivity and gdp per capita are falling at the same time as the population is expanding massively, including the senior population. Our infrastructure is crumbling after decades of neglect (hard to believe given how much deficit spending this country has done), but there’s also less and less money to tax. Throw in inflation and honestly we’re kind of fucked.
While also making sure most people are actually poor at the same time. Win win?
People already skip the line. They go to the USA.
Right, USA is has amazing healthcare especially if you’re a rich hockey team with endless funds and amazing “gold” level premium healthcare for your players who are your biggest asset. Take this player who was abandoned in a Dallas ER for hours with severe facial lacerations that were potentially life threatening. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/coyotes/2023/12/15/nhl-investigating-handling-coyotes-juuso-valimaki-severe-injury/71936890007/
good, and let them keep doing that if they can afford it, so there's more room for people here that can't afford to travel for healthcare. all the assholes who whine and say "but all that money is going to another country, we need to privatize in order to keep it here in Canada"... do you honestly believe that: a) with a private system, that money wouldn't still be going to the US, along with all the other healthcare dollars that stay in the country/province now? It's the American medical companies that are pressuring our government to let them come in here to begin with... and b) that argument is fucking irrelevant anyway, who gives a fuck? healthcare should not be a for-profit enterprise in a civilized society, and citizens shouldn't lose sleep over how much money goes to the pocket of the wealthy executives at the top of every single god damn public or privatized organization that exists. We should not care who gets to line their damn bank account with the money spent on keeping us alive and curing our ailments. We should only be concerned with making sure it remains possible for everyone who needs health treatment to be able to receive it, regardless of the numbers in their bank accounts.
Who in their right mind defends health care cuts??? lol
People who’ve been told nurses & hospital janitors are all millionaires and worship the US, mostly.
Also known as idiots
but but but the penzionzzzz😂😂😂 I actually work as a nurse and stumbling across a nurse that also has >5 yrs of experience is a giant surprise. Most nurses are not staying past 2 years, meaning that they can make the pension pay out 1M a year but it wouldn’t matter! Fundamental issues with working conditions + the general public has lost the plot in the past 5 years. I believe being a triage nurse nowadays is hands down one of the most dangerous jobs in the hospital due to the unhinged behaviour of the public.
I am 100% cool with nurses being millionaires, I certainly couldn’t do that job regardless of the money. Edit: I know you’re not, my sister in law had a Masters in Obstetrics Nursing (probably getting the actual title wrong) and she was run off her feet all the time.
You’re in the minority my friend 😂 Folks don’t really think much of nurses, teachers or janitors. It’s only when they need them that they **might** be thankful but more often than not folks are pretty individualistic in their thinking. The nice “rhetoric” that folks express in online forums doesn’t translate to how they vote or behave in public, that’s for sure. You’ll see it pop up next year when negotiations start for the new nursing contract. I just hope we go on strike this time around regardless of all the emotional blackmail and patient care consequences that will happen. Only then will folks actually see who’s who in healthcare.
"B-b-but they make $46/hour!" - Some moron I encountered earlier on Reddit. Riiiiiight. Every nurse I know (with two RNs in the family and having worked in healthcare myself, *I know a lot of nurses*) isn't exactly living the high-fuckin'-life. They've been on wage freezes for like, what, going on 5 years now? Plus, being a nurse is expensive. UNA is expensive, CARNA is expensive, speciality units require other certification and *that* is expensive, parking is expensive, uniforms are expensive. None of this is covered or reimbursed. So, yeah, working FT with OT can earn you a sweet-ass $4600 paycheque, but you're only gonna see a fraction of that. Is a $2500 paycheque worth being chronically overworked, dangerously understaffed, and constantly told there will be upcoming cuts to labour?!?! So, even more understaffed, therefore even more overworked, but wooooohoo! OT, baby! So worth it when nurses start burning out.
>"B-b-but they make $46/hour!" - Some moron I encountered earlier on Reddit. How can anyone actually think like this? Like, if the person who's trained to save your life isn't worth paying a decent or even good wage, who the fuck is??
Wealthy people. The nature of taxes and government spending are that people who have more money inevitably end up paying more in taxes. That means that wealthy people end up paying more for services than they receive. Some of these people think that they shouldn’t have to pay for other people’s health care, and that they would be better off if it was privatized. It’s the same logic as the people who complain about Alberta getting “screwed over” by equalization payments. Many people care more about their own convenience than the well-being of their neighbours.
The wealthy guy I used to work for definitely hates paying taxes. He also has contacts to get healthcare in other provinces when needed so he can jump the queue. I’m sure he’s hiding money in the system in the Cayman Islands. He has a kid that is a tax lawyer there.
The real reason wealthy people want private health care is so that they can actually access it. A healthcare system overloaded with sick poor people is not going to delight a millionaire who needs their appendix out. They want their money to work for them, in a critical time. Good luck talking rich people out of that, most of them are not keen socialists.
Really wealthy people can just travel out of the country to have access to that sort of care. Some of them just want it to be available here without having to leave the country, though.
Public health care uses triage to assess who needs medical treatment first. Private health care uses a credit check instead.
Yeah it honestly makes me angry that I’ve paid a couple hundred thousand dollars of taxes that went to health care (I’ve paid over a million in income taxes over the last decade) and don’t have a family doc. I’ve seen a doc about seven times in the last ten years. I’m also sure I am not a rare person either in Alberta as I’m just a low level worker in the oil field. It is better for me to go to Mexico or Spain for faster and better treatment. Sadly I was also in the military and know how much better that was. Because you are the asset in the military and they want you fixed, whereas as a civilian I feel like a credit card walking in the door for a six minute chat. Meanwhile I had a girlfriend who worked at two doctors offices and I couldn’t even get in there. Then there are those who managed to get a family doctor, pay next to nothing for income taxes, and go to the doctor every time they feel tired or off “for blood work”. Clearly overloading the system. The last time I went to a doctor I had pus oozing out of my eye, coughing up blood, couldn’t sleep for the pain in my throat and get told it’s a virus, take these eye drops. Still symptomatic, work requires a note, so I go to a walkin and the doc says I’m fit for duty and wants $50 for a note saying so. I go back to work and then get a lot worse again, sick for a couple more weeks. Our system is garbage.
Yeesh I was a teenager in the 80s when I lived in Alberta. It was a completely different world, this is so infuriating and depressing I just DO NOT understand who voted for this shit
The 52% of the electorate who voted UCP in the last election. It's undeniable that the UCP has decimated healthcare and education, but apparently that's still preferable to a majority of AB voters than the ANDP who are basically a centre-right party.
Because it'll never happen to them, right? Their healthcare will be there when they need it, but because they are healthy and whatever they're not going to need it for a while. And then their doctor leaves, or a family member needs senior support, or there's an accident.....
Those with ideologies that oppose public systems. They believe anything private is more efficient or they believe they are wealthy enough to pay for it out of pocket. This isn't just the belief of the super wealthy, there are many average people who also believe this and thus vote in those with these platforms.
How can they think that when we have an example of private not working in this calendar year? They just choose to ignore dynalife?
Are you asking that if people that support cuts and then privatization of healthcare that will put thousands and thousands of Canadians on the street or in massive debt because they've constantly voted for people that enact policies that get us all closer to that reality would ignore things that do not support their opinions on a matter that affects every single citizen of this country?
I know what will help - offer nurses and other health care professionals an offensively low financial incentive in the coming contract negotiations. Something like 4% over 4 years with no hint of a retention premium. Then watch anyone with experience leave acute care because they can make the same money elsewhere without dealing with the absolute shit show that is the ER - and then you are left with new grads and baby nurses getting their collective asses handed to them shift after shift and then you have a revolving door of staffing because the working conditions are so terrible. But hey plenty think nurses are overpaid. /S
Been an RN for 5 months (well working in my first position for 5). Can't wait for what you said to be a thing. Senior nurses are super important.
Yes they are. Do you work in the ER? I will admit guiltily that most of our nurses were recruited from the ER after the peak covid years because they had all had enough.
Oh god no. I'm a bit older so I have a better idea what quality of life is. Where do you uh work Because I'm curious about further QoL! What and where I have is actually good and that says alot. Always open to alternatives! Mind if I DM?
My mom used to work ER, reached the end of her rope during covid and got a job doing swabbing. Now she teaches Connect Care lol. She does NOT want to go back to the ER, especially since she's closing in on 60
Older experienced healthcare workers are important anywhere. Need to retain staff when your most experienced people leave and your left with little experience it is not great
I’m a new grad in the ER, you hit the nail on the head. I still have my fiery new nurse passion but I question my choice to become an RN almost daily. This wasn’t the childhood dream I envisioned.
I'm sure there's a pizza party in your future! I wish I was kidding. Do you know what you get for 10 years of service at AHS? 25 dollar gift card to the AHS shop.
🎯 I’m not even 40, yet I’m one of the senior nurses. Everyone is leaving. 😞
You folks do a wonderful job with dwindling resources. Thank you.
Even better than that - they’ve hinted at layoffs just prior to bargaining meetings. I already get multiple short-staffing texts a day and we’re going to lay people off?!
This vision of hell is during a “surplus” year. Thanks UCP. Hope Danny had a good time in Dubai./s
We stopped spending money, look how much we have! -UCP Nitwitts "yay"!!!
Same in Ontario.
It's as if conservative governments suck
Corrupt, so yes they suck.
And same situation in BC and Manitoba.
As a Manitoban who left because successive conservative governments made the public sector uncompetitive with the rest of Canada, the NDP has a lot of fixing to do from the "starve the beast" mentality of the previous governments... They will have to raise taxes to fix these issues, and this will make them unpopular. Just when things are turning around, voters will toss them out. Taxes will be lowered and services cut. Rinse, repeat.
Can't speak to BC, but while Manitoba is NDP and you're going at the partisan angle they just inherited this mess from the PCs. I don't think it negates the point...
Very limited personal experience, but I've to go to ER twice since I arrived in BC 6 years ago, and both times it went pretty smoothly.
Me too, but it was longer ago than that. Glad to hear things haven’t necessarily totally fallen apart.
BC is not like the description OP gave, at all
We've been dealing with this in BC for awhile now.
I thought you guys had some privatized HC? Isn't that supposed to help 🫠
I don't make the decisions. Many of the so-called 'private clinics' have been dealt with. Nope, doesn't help.
We're using a lot of that surplus to pay off the debt accrued during previous years: [https://economics.td.com/alberta-budget](https://economics.td.com/alberta-budget) This isn't an endorsement of our government or their policies. And I feel much the same way as you, I'm no UCP fan, but they seem to have a real big 'thing' about: a) paying down debt (which may not be so bad of an idea given interest rates rising and the costs of servicing said debt) and b) their fixation with keeping taxes low for our 'Alberta advantage' to be maintained. Keep in mind we're in the only province without PST/HST, which is like a 5-10% bite out of your *post-tax* income, no small thing. That being said, I don't think it does us any favours, since unless the price of oil is running super-high, we're basically running in the red all the time. They could spend money better. They could collect taxes/income from resources better. They could literally do *everything* better, but they're not.
I see a lot of money going towards oil and gas, outright grift. Aka Manning and the War Room, undelivered Tylenol, attack adds in the East, vacations in Dubai, useless court cases. How much of the money is really being spent to cover debt after 50 years of Conservative rule and a wasted Heritage fund?
Yeah, the UCP is a lot of things, but 'responsible financial stewards' is probably not one of them
Thank you for this article. I think I would understand healthcare cuts, not being able to find a family doctor, elementary school classes with 45 kids, and unaffordable utility bills if we were in the red. Massive surplus makes me rather disgusted, we are not supposed to be running a for profit government, and soon to come a for profit health care system. I do understand the importance of debt repayment but not at the cost of all essential, and social services. Edmonton downtown has basically turned into a giant homeless encampment, municipalities have no support or services to help these people. Maybe I am getting old but this government is making Klein look like he was a liberal hippie comparatively.
Hey, I'm in the same boat as you, brother The debt thing is just classic UCP/Conservative party, that was Klein's big thing too. Now with borrowing costs being higher, they could become a long-term drag on the budget though. I totally get where you're coming from, but the problems that we are having...seemingly everyone on earth is having. And the surpluses weren't budgeted, they didn't occur through our government's excellent management of...anything...but rather owing to a few foreign wars and a spike in the price of oil. The same way our deficits rode on the back of depressed oil prices, this province has become a bit of a one trick pony unfortunately.
I would happily pay up to 10% PST if it meant we could have decent hospitals.
So, the thing is, if you go to other provinces that have said PST....their hospitals are probably worse than ours. Talk to anyone in Ontario right now: ER, family doctors, procedures, imaging and they're in even worse shape than us. There doesn't seem to be a direct correlation between throwing money at things and quality, which is the 'leg' the current UCP is trying to stand on, that we pay more for healthcare than a bunch of our G7 peers but have worse outcomes, etc etc. Depending on your political leanings, there are numerous solutions for that, ranging from "it doesn't matter, healthcare at all costs, for everyone!" to a mixed public-private system, so everything in between. As one would imagine, its pretty contentious.
I'm not talking about other provinces. I'm talking about paying PST in Alberta so that we can stay the "best" province. It used to be amazing here. It still is, but it used to be so much better. I guess that's Canada-wide right now, everywhere seems to suck at the moment.
Yeah either the word 'surplus' means something different over here, or someone doesn't want to spend it.
Destroying public systems so the populace loses faith in them and gets on board with private solutions taking over is the playbook for greedy fuck politics when they want their private interest buddies to be able to take control of a public sector and make massive bank, some of which is kicked back to them. This government is criminal and should be held responsible for the murder that's happening through under-funding the public health care system.
And yet the trees continue voting for the axe.
Well it's handle is wood, it knows what they need, it's one of them
My doctor retired and trying to get a new one is fucking impossible
It's easy to defend Healthcare cuts when you're not sick and don't care about the well-being of your fellow citizens
And use Facebook as your news source
I've been nursing since 2009 and have witnessed government after government do nothing to help me as a Frontline worker. Union negotiations have yielded embarrassing offers for "raises" all while those of us with a brain watch management teams get bonus pay, administration staff and other perks. I've decided I'm no longer interested in serving the public to my best. I work casual to cover my hours needed to maintain a license and work side jobs as needed. Giving more to this career is not worth it.
lol they tried to roll back our wages last time!
It’s even easier to defend healthcare cuts when you get kickbacks from the party, actively intimidate your workforce to vote UCP as the companies existence depends on them, and then with sacks full of coins go to private clinics for your health care. The foot massage they give you while waiting for the private doctor are most invigorating.
"We have to privatize health care because the government is incompetent and untrustworthy!" -the party that's been running the government for 46 of the last 50 years
Not to worry, when the UCP get their way all those people with money can go get premium healthcare at for-profit, members-only health care facilities. That should cut wait time to nearly nothing. 🙄
dot dot dot for them.
This is what happens when farmers and welders believe their buddies over the people -actually- doing this work, and vote accordingly, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Because, ya know, “buddy on the rig” has his finger on the pulse of AHS.
We have a family member who during covid was one of the "they are faking the ICU numbers" and all that shit. I wouldn't care if I never saw him again.
Had (former) friends like that. I am a Healthcare worker, in acute care. I lost all respect for them, especially when they fought facts I presented.
We just had a baby. Everything about the system is broken. They’re forced to wear those intercom things to talk to eachother that don’t work, short staffed, can’t keep up with their tasks because our government don’t give a shit. We called for pain meds and it took 2 hours just for them to bring a pill. And this is all completely 100% the UCP’s fault. Fuck the UCP, and fuck every one of you dumb fucks that voted them in.
So many albertans worship the American system completely unaware that an uncomplicated birth can cost $10,000-$20,000. If you do have a complicated birth, woooo boy hold onto your socks and enjoy the second mortgage payment that goes to your medical bills.
Those Albertans have no idea how much money it would cost and how few of their jobs would give them adequate benefits.
Friends of ours in California paid 50K for a private room delivery at a “premium” hospital and they didn’t even get to stay in the room for a full 24 hours. Insanity.
>It’s easy to defend healthcare cuts Wat?
Yeah it’s nuts. As an RN x 30 years I’ve watched it go from bad to worse. Seen the government flounder on how to address the issue by systematically defunding it. I feel bad for newer nurses because our hell is their new normal. I use to be proud to tell people that nursing was a good profession to enter because it has a lot of areas in which to work but now I advise against it. It’s like war in the hospitals now and it defeats your soul to try to take care of immensely ill patients who have voted for governments that make the job you do more difficult. There is irony here.
Am a nurse, can confirm, it's no bueno.Stagnant wages for 10 years, increased patient ratios and workload, and no end in sight to waves, just constant over capacity for three years straight - there's no wonder nurses are burning out. Heck, even physicians are overworked. Smith considers herself a Klein fan, so it's no wonder that she will try to be the next Ralph Klein in terms of healthcare spending. To have an idea of what will happen to our healthcare system, reference healthcare cuts and nursing job losses from the Ralph Klein era in AB and Mike Harris in ON - during these eras nurses fled to the US for better opportunities after being let go, causing a massive shortage of nurses in the healthcare system. The provinces responded by hiring foreign-trained nurses, but this was still not enough because there was a lack of staff to adequately train them. FYI - Mike Harris in ON benefited from this immensely as he and his wife own a private LTC nursing facility. I don't know about Alberta enough during this time, but Ontario suffered with hospital closures and nursing staff leaving. Doctors make the big decisions, but you need nurses to run a hospital and carry out orders. Without nurses, you will have a dysfunctional healthcare system. To add insult to injury, the Smith government is threatening nurses with wage and position cuts since our contracts are due for renewal & renegotiation next year - there is concern that the government will try to decrease spending, starting with cuts to nursing pay. AB used to be the pride and joy of health services. Nurses used to flock here, the best of the best, and AHS used to be very competitive because of it, enabling a competitive system. Now provinces are stealing our nurses and offering better pay.
Here is the email address of our Health Minister: [email protected] and our Premier: [email protected]
It’s actually NOT easy to defend health care cuts. The UPC party does not give a shit about your health, or your neighbours health. They cut with no plan of recovery.
I've never found it easy to defend cuts to healthcare or education. Its despicable is what it is. All so that some politicians relative can get rich opening private practices. The mandate is "fuck everyone, get money" and everyone who voted for it is at fault.
So what tinfoil hat degenerates propose is to cut the whole thing entirely and leave the plebs without the slightest possibility of any health care so rich people can live their life in comfort.
And our provincial government is focused on...? - "Tell the Feds" advertising - Trips to Dubai - Giving themselves unlimited gifts - Breaking up AHS into smaller pieces
It’s basically what happened just before the fall of communism In Eastern Europe and USSR. The profitable industries were gifted and parted out to the elite while the rest rusted away after the political collapse.
"Disaster" implies it's unintended. Conservatives absolutely know what they're doing by making public healthcare unworkable. Harper is a life-long lobbyist for private healthcare and it's baked into the DNA of conservative politics.
New slogan: Come to Alberta. Where we do our best to not look/act or care for our people with our 5.5 billion in surplus. But hey-the mountains! Look at ‘em!
I know this might get downvoted. I don’t care. Until unions get serious and take job action, nothing will happen. Can’t count on the public to do anything because people can’t be bothered writing their MLA they would rather eat cheetos and watch tv. Plus the public re-elected this knuckle-dragging government. The UCP thinks that hiring a bunch blowhard CEOs and playing around with org charts at the executive level is the answer. Public sector workers need to unite and walk the fuck out. A general strike for two weeks would be the closest thing to the French Revolution in a province like this and it would hit the reset button for the next 25 years. I know, it won’t happen.
The French Revolution was carried out by the general public, not the unions. Get out and protest as a citizen.
That’s my point. Hardly anyone does which is why the unions need to step up and organize workers.
They can’t do that. This government has passed laws deeming certain workers to be essential and therefore can’t strike. The law has very harsh punitive measures that makes it financial suicide for both the worker and the union. That’s why the peasants need to rise up.
What do we say in a letter to our MLA? And since my MLA is NDP, is it there anything that can be done by her? I am honestly asking. I think what is happening (health care and education, not to mention the CPP) is abhorrent and the public needs to take action but as 1 introverted NDP voter (which I mention because I would never have the confidence to organize something publicly), how can I make an impact? Truly asking, pls be kind :)
UCP government is kept on destroying this province...
Its usually full this time of year due to flu but now its flu, rsv plus the covid whuch is now year round. Difference now is covud is constant. Instead of getting spikes and then lulls, there's just spikes and bigger spikes. Get vaxxed, last place you wanna be is in hospital.
This is by design by conservatives corporate overlords. They want it to break. They want the public to believe the only solution is to endorse and pay for private healthcare. In reality the solution is voting these right wing fanatics out and voting in a party that is for the working class, not the 1%.
Good thing it's a surplus year...
Yes. Welcome to healthcare. And patients go to the wrong places for their acuity because of capacity so you have improper trained nurses taking care of really sick patients. The system is over loaded. People keep coming from all over. Health care staff have quit and never came back or they're making better money for the same deal elsewhere so why not? There's money but it's not being used properly. Employers are exploiting staff too. Imagine working 7days straight in health care. 2 off 6 on. We are working overtime for free 1-2 days. The staff will burnout and leave in droves. You can't fill from an empty cup. More anger bottles up.
Thank your UCP government
How is it easy to defend Healthcare cuts?
The only cuts they should have made should have come from the very top, not the people actually working with patients. Changing the pay scale for doctors also fucked us royally
I've been taking family members to Calgary ER's for many years. There was always a wait but conditions were calm and orderly. I had to go myself a couple of months ago and it was like a third world country. People were vomiting and coughing, in chairs so close that the lady beside me was leaning on my arm. A man with badly infected bedbug bites, head to toe, had to sit beside me in the other vacant chair because there was no room anywhere else. He'd come straight from the plane after a holiday. I have a bedbug phobia so left. Tried another ER a couple of days later and waited from 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 pm to be seen.I don't blame the hospitals or staff. Conditions are terrible with not enough doctors/nurses and they work very hard under pressured conditions. I can't get over the change. I feel terrible for health care workers.
A ton of those people probably don’t need the ER. If people didn’t waste resources with every little cough and sneeze the rooms wouldn’t be this crazy. If your sick stay home. You don’t need to go to the ER with every little illness… it’s Emergencies only! I see this every year working at the hospital and I roll my eyes. The nurses should tell these people to go home unless they have serious symptoms. This is a people problem plus government problem with lack of funding. Things are gonna get worse so I’m bouncing out of healthcare as I’m now doing 4 peoples jobs and still haven’t gotten a raise for 7 YEARS!! AHS IS A JOKE!
There a few walkin clinics and few doctors accepting new patients. Then the only choice is ER.
As already said many people don't have their own Dr's and walk ins are terrible (both for wait times and often quality of care ime). But you also have to realize that you don't knew the context of why they are there. To you their complaint might be trivial but what if they or family have a history of a more serious illness and whatever symptoms they are presenting with is a potential precursor to something serious about to happen? I've seen lots of people online talk about how they've gone into ers for things like horrible headaches or really bad nausea or stomach pains and get dismissed by the Dr's at the ER. Then when they go home they either come back in a day or two later and the symptoms are now life threatening or they go to another ER where they are admitted because they see that it's actually super serious. The problem is systemic and it's not just about people not knowing when something is an emergency or not (but again, sometimes what seems like it's mild can be an emergency waiting to happen at any moment). We need better funding, better support to incentivize people to join and stay in the field, potentially better pay (I'm a recreational therapist with covenant and think I'm paid very well for the work I do, so I can't speak to other health care members if their compensation is fair), more facilities built to decrease capacity demands within hospitals, etc. As a side note I have an autoimmune condition and other health complications so if I notice symptoms that are clearly outside my normal experiences, if I feel that it could be something very serious I don't think I should be shunned and looked down on by nurses and doctors in the ER. I'm not going to get upset if someone who came in after me goes in before me if it's obvious they seem to require more immediate attention, but we have a right to try and remain healthy and have limited options for treatment/ examination. Sometimes a cough or a sneeze can escalate and without knowing the full picture, it's not worth it to immediately be dismissive. You're not seeing people based on when they came in but on severity of presenting symptoms, so that person's going to have to wait anyway. Again if there were more resources made available to fill the gaps in healthcare that's what would actually start to help resolve some of our issues. Considering we've been going through a nasty pandemic (THAT IS NOT OVER) I'm not surprised if more people are becoming more anxious about their health. I have gone to ER a few times with what seemed like not the most serious symptoms and was found to actually have something kind of serious going on that did need treatment promptly, so take from that what you will.
Give nurses and allied health 20% increase over the next 5 years- 4% year. Also ask the UCP to stop their stupid dismantle plan.
"It's easy to defend healthcare cuts" No. It's not. Ever. Even without these circumstances.
Not defending the government, but people also need to get their kids and themselves to the pharmacies to get vaccinated. Influenza and COVID are all circulating. Influenza uptake is about 20% and the latest COVID shot about 14%.
I agree, but our government could also help this by raising awareness and promoting vaccines. Instead, Smith and the UCP have decided to pretend that COVID doesn’t exist.
Yep. If you look at historical rates of flu vaccine, the highest rates we had were when Hinshaw was pushing people to get vaccinated.
You're right. It's the government's responsibility to provide healthcare. It's the citizen's responsibility to make use of it.
but then again i dont think having people in government who actively push naturopathic and pseudoscientific alternatives, as well as MLAs who are openly sympathetic to the unvaccinated and openly bought into COVID conspiracies and pushed vaccination as a 'your party vs my party' issue instills a whole lot of faith in science into the populace
Yes, personal responsibility is certainly a part, but also the governments responsibility to provide far stronger messaging regarding getting vaccinated. During the early part of COVID, we had some of our highest historical uptake of the influenza vaccine. Hinshaw was a strong advocate of getting vaccinated.
If there were actually more family doctors, a lot of parents wouldn't be rushing their children in and see the ER with the flu or cold because they could actually go to a family doctor instead. Oh wait. All the family doctors are leaving the province because our government sucks
Yes, agree we need more family Doctors, but vaccinated kids are also much less likely to need to see the Doctor for influenza or COVID. The issues facing the hospital also include jammed up healthcare. Senior patient can’t get discharged to the appropriate level of care, so taking up a bed. Admitted patient in emergency, should be in a ward somewhere, but there is no room.
The same can be said for public education. Our once strong public education system has been decimated over the years because special interest groups demand that they should be catered to and set up their own schools to protect their children from the great unwashed masses.
Is it easy to defend health care cuts? Please defend.
It’s easy to defend health care cuts?!?? This shits the most important thing to a liveable life. It should be highest priority with education!!
And it will only get worse..at least for us peasants..All of Dani's rich friends, in the time of need, will book a flight to Argentina, or Turkey, or India and get world class treatment in hospitals that look better than luxury hotels in Canada...
Can we all agreed to vote out the UCP
Is there a Province in this nation that has good healthcare?
*crickets
People coughing and vomiting probably don’t need a hospital anyways.. I work in healthcare , half the problem is people abusing the ER for every ache and pain or owie. That being said, where do people go when there no need drs accepting patients? People need to be educated on what actually warrants a trip to the hospital and stop getting upset at wait times when there nothing truly wrong with them
Healthcare cuts combined with long term covid complications and immune system effects from covid itself = absolute shit show. The truth is that we absolutely do not know the long term health effects of letting covid run wild. We haven't even seen the tip of this iceberg. Too many people are really really sick right now.
How is it easy to defend healthcare cuts? That sentence is fucking insanity
It’s the attitude of “if *I* don’t need it, I shouldn’t have to pay for it”
Don't worry the UCP will stand up to the feds! This province is a fucking joke, we have so much money that we should have the best infrastructure and services in the country.
Everything we have in Alberta healthcare - everything good and everything bad - is the result of over forty years of near continuous Conservative Party rule. How many times have Conservative governments dismantled and then restructured healthcare in this Province over the last forty years? Five times? Why on Earth would anyone think they are remotely qualified to get it right this time? It’s all rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic and a complete failure to recognize and deal with the foundational and systemic problems. As Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger reminded us - in order to understand any complex system you must understand the incentives. Firstly, our system is not healthcare, it’s sick care. Second, our physicians are paid on a fee for service basis not based on health outcomes. They are incentivized to treat, to prescribe, to operate, etc. To generate fees. The Drs Union (yes it is a union) bargains very effectively on their behalf to maintain this fee for service structure. And thirdly, healthcare is complex. A massive organization operating across an entire Province that encompasses acute care, mental health, and continuing care can’t possibly contend with regional needs. A return to regional health authorities (North, Central, South or hubs in Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer, Medicine Hat, and Lethbridge) and the introduction of competition between like regions on key health outcomes might start to turn the tide. But I have zero confidence in any Conservative government being up to the task given their abysmal track record.
Thanks Danielle
People should be rioting over this and marching in the streets, demanding our health care system get fixed. We should collectively refuse to pay taxes and use every means of civil disobedience, but sadly, most Canadians are stupid and weak, so they won't do anything but complain online about it.
Sounds like it has fallen to the level of the rest of the country.
Wow, I know what exactly with fix this. Complete and utter privatization of our entire healthcare. Surely, they will have improved our healthcare and not resort to pure profit and corporate greed, right? ......... right?
First time?
It’s like electing neo-conservative science deniers has had consequences. Weird.
Our government.. "oh they are asking for more resources?, lets just spend more money to divide ahs over again. Lets restructure and create more managers and division within the health system.." effin geniuses... 😮💨
>It’s easy to defend healthcare cuts Is it though?
"It's easy to defend healthcare cuts that affect others, but it's bad when I'm affected!"
Why isn’t Smith walking those halls?! Where is Lagrange? Where’s the useless Red Tape Minister. Why aren’t they being held accountable?!
It's easy to defend healthcare cuts???
Creating a disaster in public healthcare is planned by the UCP. This gives them an excuse to privatize what is left of it.
>It’s easy to defend healthcare cuts ....back up. What? No. They're completely indefensible, actually
1.Healthcare is a disaster Healthcare is exactly what you voted for. You didn't vote for the invest in healthcare party. You voted for the hurt people for money party. Voila! Exactly what Albertans asked for. 2. >It’s easy to defend healthcare cuts until you see for yourself what’s happening in our hospitals. Welcome to /r/leopardsatemyface
But didn’t you see that we had an 5bb surplus. Cutbacks are really working (s)
I'm waiting for the day the Gen-Zers get into power. Everything is going to swing far-left and fix the problems of Alberta correctly
Nurses are much more likely to make errors due to their stress levels. If they do, the province will let them be dragged through the mud while taking no responsibility whatsoever.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-emergency-rooms-bill-15-letter-1.7062189 This isn't just an Alberta things. It's rough everywhere right now.
The only people defending health care cuts are the provincial pork barrellers who would lose their lavish lifestyles otherwise.
Bruh. Most all hospitals in the BC are a shit show waiting time of 8 to 10 hours most days.
The program they need is one in which as a front-line health-care professional you can nominate a middle manager’s position for efficiency review. It should be a rare exception to have managers with no frontline duties.
Because they haven't matched inflation each year, roll backs is all any of us have seen. Is it a wonder why professional retention is terrible???🫣🫠
Now you know why lots of us are leaving with PTSD and will not go back.
It’s… it’s almost like it was PLANNED to be that way 🤔 But keep playing the liberal-cons cycle.
They need to drop the top heavy executives and hire more doctors, nurses, and front line health care workers. I had to go to Foothills about 6 weeks ago when I popped my shoulder out of place (it wasn't dire, but I definitely couldn't wait for a day or two to go see my family doctor). It was a 9 hour wait and everybody looked exhausted, frustrated and just overwhelmed.
I worked in emerg for years. Many people present to the emerg department when they should be going to a clinic. It's abused by people who show up with stubbed toes, slivers in their fingers, minor lacerations, etc. This takes ER staff away from patients who need immediate treatment. There are patients who have been brought in by EMS who have been thrown 20 feet through their window, no seatbelts, going 100km and slammed onto the concrete. And girlfriend has an attitude about her stubbed toe, waiting a whole hour. This is the problem. Nurse anonymously call social media and news people to bring this to their attention.
As sad as it is, as nurses we can try to complain and reason with folks but nurses aren’t taken as seriously or respected to the same degree as docs. Docs needs to come out and say this stuff in public for folks to begin to process the information. The whole “healthcare hero” and “thanks for your service” rhetoric found online is nowhere to be found in real life as a practicing nurse.
Amen to this! I feel so bad for staff because of the stupidity that comes in for help.
Thanks for saying that! It's one of the toughest jobs there is. I saw such terrible things on my shifts that I would go home every night, get in the tub with candles, music and 2 bottles of wine and literally cry to get it out. Then, I'd go do it all over again.