Health Care Wait Times
November 3, 2010
Mrs. Forsyth: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We hear horror stories about our emergency departments. They are not made up but come from experiences that our dedicated, caring health professionals face on a daily basis. They are incidents that emergency doctors have documented. They are real stories, and they are real people.
Why do I say “real people”? Because I was one of them. My mum is 86 years old, and she fell, so our journey began. After spending hours – and I mean hours – in the emergency, we were finally admitted. Now, we already knew my mum’s elbow was fractured, and we already knew that she would have to have surgery.
What we didn’t know was the length of time it would take to get there. Not only did we wait hours in emergency, but we waited days to have the surgery. You have a vibrant, active senior who is now confined to bed for days, not eating and on an IV, and guess what happens? You get other complications: heart problems, fevers, and a senior that ends up in a hospital for six weeks. Now, we hear about our seniors and how they’re tying up the acute-care beds. Well, it’s no wonder why some of them are doing that.
I do want to commend the wonderful doctors, the nurses, the LPNs, the NAs, the pharm techs, and all the unbelievable other people that touched our lives when she was in the hospital. There is good news and there is bad news in these stories. On the good side are the dedicated, compassionate health care workers that work hard under unbelievable conditions. On the bad side is Alberta Health Services and the government who just doesn’t get it.
Ten months ago I stood in front of reporters explaining why I was crossing the floor. There were numerous reasons, Mr. Speaker,
health care being a major one. A broken system can be fixed. It can be fixed by providing the right care at the right time at the right place by the right health provider in the right period of time.
Mr. Speaker, no one could have quoted it better than my mum.