Health care budget burdened by unnecessary surgeries

We are providing too much expensive health care to too many folks who do not really need it.

In my 15 years as an executive at Vancouver General and Calgary’s Foothills Hospitals, I heard the same litany of demands for increased funds as today: More and better trained staff, expensive diagnostic tools, more and improved operating facilities, and so on.

In 1963 I tore my anterior cruciate ligament. Since then I have made limited use of braces to undertake various activities ( none of which include running); and while I have often been told by physicians that I would be a preferred candidate for knee replacement, I have been able to live a satisfying life by adjusting to my disability.

Too many surgeries ( aided by expensive technology like ultrasound and MRIS) are performed because many physicians and surgeons possess huge egos and huge desires to earn money.

As well, too many of us demand nothing but the ultimate in health care resolutions to our problems.

Friends and acquaintances have availed themselves of hip and knee replacements as the aging process limited their ability to function at an earlier capacity ( e. g., I can’t comfortably play three rounds of golf a week without a cart, I used to play racquetball daily, I experience constant pain, etc).

I cannot understand the increasing demand to halt the aging process. It is time governments compelled physicians to perform better the job of qualifying and limiting surgery to those that are “necessary to continue an aging lifestyle.”

If we want to keep sexagenarians and older on the golf course, running marathons and otherwise performing herculean tasks, be prepared to see that health care budget climb. PAT MULCAHY Victoria