Cataract Surgery
April 19, 2010
The Speaker: The hon. Member for Calgary-Fish Creek on the subject of urgency.
Mrs. Forsyth: Well, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think that through my history of being involved and being elected since 1993, this is the first time that I’ve stood up in regard to the emergency debate.
The Speaker: Did the member hear what I said on the question of urgency?
Mrs. Forsyth: I have to speak up on this issue because of all the calls that we’re receiving.
The Speaker: Hon. member, that’s fine, but I asked you to speak on the question of urgency – I’ve already heard from two of your colleagues – urgency of the reason why we should give up the whole agenda for today.
Mrs. Forsyth: Well, Mr. Speaker, I was actually getting to that, so if you could give me a few minutes. The problem that we’re facing here is the fact that we’re hearing from patients in the system that are calling the minister’s office. The minister’s office is telling them to call the complaint line at Alberta Health Services. Alberta Health Services is telling them to call the ophthalmologist. So none of these patients that are in the system are getting answers whatsoever.
The minister alluded to that he’s been answering questions in the House in regard to the questions that we’ve been asking him. Well, he hasn’t really answered the questions because he doesn’t really know the answers, and every time he answers a question, my BlackBerry goes crazy with more questions to ask the minister, which is happening at this particular time. He indicated to the Herald that there are legitimate concerns in regard to what’s happening on the contracts, so he’s wanting to meet with the ophthalmologists on the 24th.
He talks about the fully accredited facilities. Well, the one, when he talks about the expansion of surgeries that are going to be done in this province, hasn’t even been built yet. It’s difficult to get the College of Physicians and Surgeons to accredit anything when the facility hasn’t even been built yet.
Mr. Speaker, I met with somebody that was waiting for transplant surgery. He was called by his ophthalmologist; his transplant surgery has been delayed. I look at Bill 1, the Alberta Competitiveness Act, and they talk about Alberta wanting to be the most competitive in this country. Yet the same way they’re being competitive, they’re striking a monopoly with two people getting the contracts. What do you tell patients that are waiting for a transplant?
This particular individual has decided he’s going to try and get his transplant surgery in B.C. If he can’t get it in B.C., then he’s going to try and get it at the Mayo Clinic.
You get calls in regard to tissue transplants, all the tissues that are actually going to waste at this particular time. Mr. Speaker, there are a whole bunch of unanswered questions.
This is an emergency. We’ve got people waiting for surgery. Yes, they haven’t been cancelled, but they’ve been postponed. How do you tell somebody that’s had their surgery postponed, that has been waiting forever for this, that “Yes, we’re going to do your surgery, yes, we’re going to postpone it, but we need to find out when we can give you the particular surgery”? Just so many unanswered questions.
Mr. Speaker, this is urgent.
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