Past Dean, Cumming School of Medicine; Gastroenterologist, Avid photographer in no particular order. Opinions are mine.
Joined November 2011
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Jon Meddings retweeted
For pay medical service does not make access for UHC faster. It's been in radiology for 25 years and it's a failure.
Read the proof: ⬇️⬇️⬇️
(w/ thanks to Jon Meddings)
@Ab_51Project
#AlbertaSepatation #AlbertaIndependance
@ABProsperityPrj
#ForeverCanadian
@AB_Resistance
Jun 4
OK. I went back and looked.
AB was the first province in Canada to introduce pt-pay access for radiology (CT/MRI). It was done in 1993 and the rationale at the time was that wt lists were too long.
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I mean, what could go wrong? I'm sure the bureaucrats know how to supervise them. So many experts in government....
Jun 12
“the Government of Alberta is transferring 370 Public Health Inspectors, Researchers, and Health Promotion Facilitators from Alberta Health Services (AHS) to direct government employment”
#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli hsaa.ca/post/accept-less-or-…
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And a huge thanks to the amazing @PfParks for doing this. An incredible amount of work on behalf of Alberta. Thank you Paul!
Alberta Urgent Conversations Provincial Tour is complete!
25 Communities, 1 virtual, 1000's of Albertans engaged, 10,750Km driven!
Consensus exists that HC is NOT going in the right direction.
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Jun 12
A more politically feasible (and effective) approach would be to ban all private care (inc Bill 11) as defined by the CHA. That has several advantages:
1. AB is not perceived as being "picked on"
2. Private capacity (generated from the public systems) would return to public.
Jun 12
"take the doctors’ advice and put a stop to Bill 11"
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Jun 12
It is a bit rich...
Yes, we need frontline workers. We also need intelligent and expert leadership with a strategic plan.
What we have: Demoralized, overworked frontline. 4 disconnected orgs. No more experts - bureaucrats doing the job. No plan.
This👇
It’s all govt bureaucrats and consultants making HC decisions now.
Clinical expertise and input no longer needed… and pt safety no longer guaranteed!
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Jun 11
All the provinces have to do to benefit is to make sure the federal government doesn't clamp down on the practice.
Because if they do - well that capacity would have to be used to treat local patients and it would have to be covered by healthcare.
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Jun 11
So yes, I'd love to see the federal government take charge of a movement that is slowly killing healthcare in Canada.
We are all focussed on AB Bill 11 and what it will do but the damage has already been done to a large extent by the federal gov ignoring the CHA. /7
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Jun 11
Bill 11 simply says that Albertans can continue doing what we have done for years. We can purchase private h/c. The only difference is now we don't need to leave the province... /end
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Jun 11
Enough of us can't endure the wt and so we leave. We pay for our care privately even though we've already paid with tax $.
So if a province has enough people leave to get care they benefit from this. All they have to do is keep wt lists long. /3
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Jun 11
All our provinces have extra, unused capacity for h/c right now. Itis being used to provide private care for other provinces - and makes money for the provincial government (they keep taxes and don't provide care). /4
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Jun 11
Right now the CHA is interpreted such that purchasing needed care in a province is offside - but it is silent on purchasing it from another.
So all of us can access private care outside of our home province.
And all provinces benefit from having a long wt list. /2
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Jun 11
I completely understand why people do this. I can easily imagine doing it myself.
But lets look at why this is such a travesty in Canada - and should be outlawed by the federal government.
It tells us a bit about why h/c is in such a mess across the country. /1
I was on a wait list here for a tonsillectomy for over 4 years. I could have gone to Vancouver, paid 5k and got the surgery in less than 2 months. Given the significant changes to my health over the course of the 4 yr wait ... I should have just paid the money & went to Vancouver
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Jun 10
This is something I'd like changed in the CHA.
It is a violation to purchase medically necessary care in your own province but somehow not in another. A serious loophole.
If we have a national CHA - then we shouldn't allow it to be interpreted provincially.
Jun 10
My rich BC neighbour is getting his knee replacement operation in Calgary soon after waiting a couple months. He is paying the Calgary clinic and jumping the queue over hard working Albertans who can’t afford to pay. Alberta is for rich people to exploit the hard working
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Jun 10
Bottom line is that AB h/c is not performing well. It hasn't for a long time.
It's not that there aren't solutions - many have offered them.
The problem is that GoA does not feel any pressure to implement them. And so, the problems will continue. More will suffer.
Jun 10
COLUMN. The latest misadventure in health care. calgaryherald.com/opinion/co… #ableg #abpoli #cdnpoli #Alberta
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Jun 9
As noted in the article this form of activity based funding may be helpful. However, it is not the answer for what ails our h/c system. We need more people and more beds - without that no funding model change is going to help.
cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/p…
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Jun 8
This is England. Same problem.
The response *isn't* that they have the same problem so nothing can be done. It is that they are looking for a solution - we should too.
theguardian.com/society/2026…
More than 1,300 deaths a month in England due to long A&E waits, figures suggest
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Jun 8
$90M
6 schools or 24,000 knee surgeries. And what are we wasting this money on?
Asking questions we can't implement the answers too or whether we should ask a question.
Where did all the fiscal conservatives go?? I think we can take the C out of UCP...
How much will the referendum on having a referendum, and on 9 questions that can’t be provincially implemented cost?
$90 million tax dollars. 60,000 workers to be hired by Elections Alberta.
You could build 3 schools for that.
That’s your money
#ableg elections.ab.ca/resources/me…
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There’s no “functioning” ED that has to make pts with chest pain wait 13hrs to be seen.
When will the govt act? Only when someone dies? (and only when that makes the news?)
Do you think govt or the AHS CEO is even aware?
@AHS_media @ABDanielleSmith
Let's talk wait times with CHEST PAIN at the UofA ED.
Just this week: posted "average" wait time at UAH was 5hrs... but something has changed and these are no longer even close to reflective of the real wait times.
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