A sad sitaution at Medicine Hat hospital

Hospitals should not be operated the way you would operate a food service business. Food services require full tables all the time to be successful. Hospitals require some empty beds from time to time. The fact there are seldom empty beds results in people being treated and dying in the hallways. Are we going to close the ICU because there ae sometimes empty beds?

Palliative care is a specialty. The doctors and nurses who choose to work in the unit have specialized training and knowledge relativve to the dying. Hardly anyone dies the way theey do on TV, looking lovingly at family members, sighing andclosing their eyes. They are often in excruitating pain, scared and maybe gasping for their next breath. They often need special equipment and care. Are you prepared to deal with this at home? Often weeks or months of coping with a terminal loved one. Is Home Care? Where are these trained Home Care workers coming from? What if the hospice is full? Is it back to a full hospital and hallway?

The hospital expansion has been much touted in recent years. We have a helipad we can’t use. Our operating rooms were closed for weeks as instruments couldn’t be properly sterilized. We have an entry way that, unless we are hosting the Oscars, is a collosal waste of space and money. The mind boggles. We have no new beds and are closing the palliative beds.

It’s a sad situation when weve allowed the “fixing” of a system hat wasn’t broken to come before human compassion.

Noel Maughhan Medicine Hat