No to private care

It is fortunate that Micheal Tanouye got the needed cardiac assessment from a private clinic, but maybe his non-confidence in his prior physician was inappropriate.

I have been a rural family physician for 32 years and work with a dedicated group of like-minded physicians. They believe in helping patients from conception to the grave.

At our hospital today, the group is covering ER, inpatients, geriatrics, obstetrics and anesthesia. Others are in Banff learning new techniques to bring back to our community. Tomorrow, these docs will be in offices offering compassionate, progressive services to patients.

Yes, there are time constraints, but they care and offer excellent services. I trust them with my life and the life of my family. I trust the specialists and other dedicated AHS teams. They aren’t perfect, but they have chosen to do the best they can helping all within the public system.

These docs address problems in a timely manner. They contact competent, hard working specialists who often see a patient immediately.

The patient may get an MRI or see a busy neuro- surgeon or pediatrician that day. If the doc suspects a heart issue, they will arrange for immediate investigation. If they sense a problem, the patient may be seeing a cardiologist that day or admitted by a family doc to our local hospital. These are full service public docs.

“My gut tells me” that I am pretty safe with AHS and its dedicated docs, nursing and support staff. Private health care for me? Nope.

Keith Spackman, MD, High River