![]() ![]() ![]() The United Conservative Party, seeking to address concern about its leader's past views on out-of-pocket health care, has put forward a "public health-care guarantee." Other promises include increasing educational spaces for health-care training, $10 million for new obstetricians and a provincial midwives strategy.īoth parties have pledged to prioritize and build the Red Deer hospital expansion. The New Democratic Party has promised to create 40 new family health clinics, hire 4,000 allied health professionals - a category that includes medical technologists and midwives - and increase funding for emergency medical services. The politicians have been making their pitches. Now, in the midst of a heated election campaign centred on the two parties that most recently formed government, health care is a top issue for voters. Already under strain, from long wait times to shortages of family doctors, the pandemic pushed resources and staff to the breaking point. So it's always kind of there, it's in the back of your mind."Īlberta's health-care system has long been a point of contention. "That's why they say it's imperative to go in and take it out. the fun fact is, it can rupture again," she says. After a three-hour wait to be examined, she was sent to the hospital emergency department with a suspected burst appendix.Īdkins waited another five hours as her symptoms became more severe - she describes the pain as "extreme." She was eventually admitted, and after a 10-day hospital stay she was sent home to wait for a surgery. She went to a Red Deer walk-in clinic last December with abdominal discomfort. ![]() This, he says, creates lengthy wait times in the emergency department. "Well, if the emergency department is full of patients awaiting admission, awaiting a bed upstairs, there's no room to see patients coming in." "If there's no beds, that means we can't send the patients from emergency upstairs," Wolstenholme says. Keith Wolstenholme, an orthopedic surgeon and founding member of the Society for Hospital Expansion in Central Alberta. "We're probably somewhere between 150 to 200 beds short in our hospital right now," says Dr. While health-care concerns in Red Deer include access to family doctors and walk-in clinics, a key piece of the problem is the hospital. In January 2022, as estimated emergency department wait times at the Red Deer hospital soared to 14 hours, a patient died awaiting care after being triaged and told to wait.Ĭiting personal privacy, AHS did not release any information about the person, including the cause of death or why they had come to the ER. His experience is indicative of the state of health care in Red Deer, and the province generally: a shortage of resources, beds and staff result in lengthy wait times for not only so-called "elective" procedures like knee replacements, but also emergency room visits. Williams is still on the waiting list for the other knee, which could end up being a four-year wait in total. "My heart goes out to them because when you're in pain and you can't move, you're not mobile, there's not much you can do in life, really." "I thought about the people who can't afford that," he says. ![]() The pain was so debilitating that Williams made the difficult decision to spend a considerable portion of his retirement savings on knee surgery in a private clinic in Montreal. but the left knee was just agonizing, just pain all the time." "I struggled around with a lot of pain," says Williams. His mental health was deteriorating along with his physical condition. He'd recently lost his wife and son, and had been diagnosed with cancer himself. Milt Williams was facing a painful years-long wait for knee replacement surgery at the Red Deer Regional Hospital. 21.Facing a years-long wait for surgery on one knee when the other gave out, Milt Williams decided to spend some of his retirement savings on surgery in a private clinic. To arrange a pick-up, email or you can drop items off at Cosmos Bottle Depot on Orr Drive in Red Deer from 11 a.m. Once during our son’s stay in the hospital, we had an unexpected dental bill and Helping Families paid it.”īloomer says they’re also keeping another young boy and family friend, Malcolm, who was recently diagnosed with osteosarcoma, in their hearts as the bottle drive is going. “Helping Families Handle Cancer provides so much financial support throughout your child’s whole journey, including help with covering gas, parking, gift cards for groceries and much more. These services all come at no cost and are provided for the whole family, not just the sick child,” says Jamelle Bloomer, Nicolas’s mom. They run summer camps, physical therapy, counselling, tutoring for kids who can’t attend school and so much more. “Kids Cancer Care provides help to families both throughout the hospital stay and beyond. ![]()
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