Shameful default
Re: “Curing what ails us,” Editorial, and “AHS scaling back wait-time standards,” Dec. 18.
The Herald draws attention to an Alberta Health Services revision of performance standards. Failure to meet standards seems the reason for revision. So, rather than improve system capacity to shorten waits, longer waits will be the new norm.
I see this as another shameful default on the mandate given this government.
Our government knows that no other similar industrialized country in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development tries to do the job with as few resources. In acute care bed count alone, we stand at only 50 per cent of the average of the OECD sample. Our doctor count scores second lowest and our nurse count is below the average.
A recent Commonwealth Fund Report told us Canadians endure longer waits for emergency, primary and specialist care and elective surgery than patients in Australia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S.
To our acute care shortages we must add the elder care model in Alberta. The recent Parkland Institute report tells us long-term care staff counts have been persistently eroded in numbers and qualifications required despite “increased acuity and medical complexity.” Those needing long term care should not be in acute care beds as they do not receive the programs they need. But the long-term care facilities may also offer far less than needed. Premier Redford, are these your standards?
Ralph Coombs, Calgary Ralph Coombs was CEO of the Foothills Hospital from 1973 to 1991.