Don't get sick in Calgary...

[fast95pony]

We spend 6 hours in Emergency at Foothills Sunday night.We were lucky.The average wait time was 12-14 hours !

The staff were doing their best.But the wait was pathetic.
There were some very sick people waiting a very long time.
(There were also a few who didn't look sick at all..) .
There were a lot of ambulance staff hanging around waiting for beds for their patients as well.

This city's heath care system is a disgrace !

[marko polo]

people dont understand that an emergency room is for emergency's only. If people in calgary would just see there family doctor or go to a clinic for non emergency cases it would speed up the emergency room considerably.

[Kaos]

Originally posted by fast95pony
We spend 6 hours in Emergency at Foothills Sunday night.We were lucky.The average wait time was 12-14 hours !

The staff were doing their best.But the wait was pathetic.
There were some very sick people waiting a very long time.
(There were also a few who didn't look sick at all..) .
There were a lot of ambulance staff hanging around waiting for beds for their patients as well.

This city's heath care system is a disgrace !

Don't like the system? get the fuck out! jk
Unless you didn't hear, we having a booming city and short staff at every hospital. So Im not surprised at the waiting times at all.
I think women who are pregnant and in labour got it worse.
Once you're done with your labour, a couple hours and you're sent home.

[Fado]

Originally posted by Kaos

I think women who are pregnant and in labour got it worse.
Once you're done with your labour, a couple hours and you're sent home.

A couple of hours? Thats bunk, especially after shoving a kid out of your vagina.

[nadroj23]

Originally posted by Kaos


Don't like the system? get the fuck out! jk
Unless you didn't hear, we having a booming city and short staff at every hospital. So Im not surprised at the waiting times at all.
I think women who are pregnant and in labour got it worse.
Once you're done with your labour, a couple hours and you're sent home.

Yep my sister in law just had my nephew and she was in the hospital less then 36 hours.........but what can you do with shortages like we have

[BigMass]

Originally posted by nadroj23


Yep my sister in law just had my nephew and she was in the hospital less then 36 hours.........but what can you do with shortages like we have

hire more people? offer wages so good that people WANT to move to your city to work in your hospitals? Build more hospitals? I dont know, doesn't sound like rocket science to me. With the amount of money this province makes currently, money should be the last reason anything gets done around here. If it is, the system is fucked up %100. No more sending money out of province until there is nothing left to spend it on here at home IMO.

[Kritafo]

I was just having this conversation with my sister who is a nurse in Ontario.

People out here mis-use the emerg. We went with our daughter for a wrist x-ray. The nurse told us to go to the cafeteria and they would page us because the entire waiting room was full of people with the flu.

In Ontario, they access you when you sign in, if your saying you have the flu...then they are turned away. They can see Dr.'s the next day. If its not an emerg there are walk-in clinics all ovr the city. Children don't dehydrate from vomiting for 4 hours. People standing in line at emerg were there for rashes, some people where there that had Dr.'s appointments the following day.

It amazes me everytime.

Yes my daughter did have a broken wrist, and it had to be reset...it was awful. More for the parents. haha!

[Isaiah]

Originally posted by Kaos

Unless you didn't hear, we having a booming city and short staff at every hospital. So Im not surprised at the waiting times at all.

It has less to do with a booming city and more to do with an alcoholic former premier who thought the best way to overcome a deficit was to attack health care and education. His short sightedness is directly responsible for the current state of health care in Alberta. Maybe steady Eddy will realize that a city of 1,000,000 could use another couple hospitals.

[Darkane]

The problem is not so much the shortages as people going to the hospital who ARE NOT in an emergency. People are weak, Thats just fact.

[eb0i]

3 years ago I was running a really high fever and my heart was beating at approx 160 bpm. My friend took me to the emergency room. I waited about 5 hours to get into a bed. I was passing in and out in the waiting room.



Another time they thought my little bro had appendicitis and we were sent to the old Children's hospital (from clinic) and waited 8 hours before we saw a doctor and then another 4 for a doctor to do something after we got my bro into a room.

[nadroj23]

Originally posted by BigMass


hire more people? offer wages so good that people WANT to move to your city to work in your hospitals? Build more hospitals? I dont know, doesn't sound like rocket science to me. With the amount of money this province makes currently, money should be the last reason anything gets done around here. If it is, the system is fucked up %100. No more sending money out of province until there is nothing left to spend it on here at home IMO.

Come to think of it that is very true. I dont think this falls on the City shoulders this should fall on the Alberta government for not funding Health care until now. And now is a little to late. I agree that we shouldnt have to dish out money to other provinces when we have things that need to be taken care. The 2 most important thing on my list that the government needs to take care of is Health Care and Education. They need more hospitals workers, they need more schools and teachers.

[lint]

Originally posted by fast95pony
We spend 6 hours in Emergency at Foothills Sunday night.We were lucky.The average wait time was 12-14 hours !

The staff were doing their best.But the wait was pathetic.
There were some very sick people waiting a very long time.
(There were also a few who didn't look sick at all..) .
There were a lot of ambulance staff hanging around waiting for beds for their patients as well.

This city's heath care system is a disgrace !

You didn't mention what you were at the emergency for. Not trying to belittle your experience, but since you waited 6 hrs and are still with us, I think it's safe to assume that it didn't require immediate action?

definition of emergency from Dictionary.com

1. a sudden, urgent, usually unexpected occurrence or occasion requiring immediate action.

[marko polo]

Originally posted by eb0i
3 years ago I was running a really high fever and my heart was beating at approx 160 bpm. My friend took me to the emergency room. I waited about 5 hours to get into a bed. I was passing in and out in the waiting room.



Another time they thought my little bro had appendicitis and we were sent to the old Children's hospital (from clinic) and waited 8 hours before we saw a doctor and then another 4 for a doctor to do something after we got my bro into a room.

same thing happened to me when i had an appendicitis, I went to the doctor and they told me to go to the EMergency room right away. i had to wait for like 4 hours becuase of retards that were ahead of me had headaches, flu and other non emergencies. by the time i got any help i had already thrown up all over the place and was on the verge of passing out due to the pain and how weak i felt.

when i finnaly did see a doc at the hospital, he couldnt believe i had an appndiciitis till further obsevation becuase he thought if i did i would have been dead already, no joke he actully said my appendix should have burst and i should have been dead or dieing. well atleast now they rushed me into surgery so they wouldnt have a repeat of that incident where a child died from an appendicitis that was not treated in time like 6 or 7 years ago.

[BigMass]

telling people not to go into emerg when it's something trivial is pointless. People will come for different reasons weather you like it or not, the best way to deal with it is to be prepared.

Personally i went into emerg once because of a simple allergic reaction that was treated easily with an antihistamine pill. Unfortunately it was the first allergic reaction i ever had, didnt know what it was and thought i was dying because of the severe symptoms.

If the hospital had a front line nurse or doctor that would have taken 2 min to look me over before telling me to wait for 6 hours, i would have been out of there. They could have told me first hand what the problem was, given me an anti histamine and sent me home in 5 min. Same with people with basic flu and cold symptoms. Instead they tell you to wait. Which is the most inefficient stupid piece of shit system i could think of.

Have a doctor who's only job is to walk around the waiting room and identify the obvious shit and send people home. Like my situation. Instead i had to wait and take up time for other people when i thought i was dying.

[Weapon_R]

People abuse the system to no end. Cut your hand? Go to the hospital! A bad headache? Yep, hospital. Please.

Alberta's spending for health care has almost quadroupled since the early 90s, yet we do not have 4x the population. A booming city comes with costs.

[codetrap]

.

[TKRIS]

Anyone that goes to the emergency room and is found to have either a cold, or the flu, or something equally non-life threatening, commonplace, and stupid, should be fined a minimum of $200.

Example: I have the worst cold in the entire world right now. I'm about to go home from work. And aside from the 3 hours I've been up today, I haven't left my bed in 3 days.
From here, I will be going home to rest, drink lot's of fluids, and take some sudafed. I will not be going to waste nurses and doctor's time, because I'm not a complete fucking moron.

The best thing about our healthcare system is that everyone gets treated. The worst thing about our healthcare system is that they have to treat everyone.

Kris

[blueToy]

Originally posted by fast95pony
We spend 6 hours in Emergency at Foothills Sunday night.We were lucky.The average wait time was 12-14 hours !

The staff were doing their best.But the wait was pathetic.
There were some very sick people waiting a very long time.
(There were also a few who didn't look sick at all..) .
There were a lot of ambulance staff hanging around waiting for beds for their patients as well.

This city's heath care system is a disgrace !

Actually , the CHR is in the best shape it's ever been , and will probably show a huge slide in 20-25 years .

As for the shortages , there are two issuses here .

Firstly , in the late 80's and early 90' s , decisions were made by our local Head honcho polititian ( Mr Ralph Klien ) to slash all costs to get Albertas' debt under control . Across the board prices were slashed and I remember my cousin's wife and her friends had just graduated from Uni in nursing and couldn't find work anywhere here . Two of the three nurses actually had to leave to find work , one went to the US and one went to Vancouver . The other stayed and found work , but it was at a private clinic and only part-time .
During this time , I also have a buddy who was moving his way up the ladder in the health care system , and he was all against the cuts . He forcasted a time when the health care system would be not only short staffed , but on the verge of burnout , where it almost seem today . He also knew that when the time came to get more staff , it would take years and years to make up for the shortages . Doctors , nurses and all staff just don't show up overnight . It takes many years to build teams and fill positions . And this brings me to my second point .

Staff . We all here know or heard about the shortages , but what is also a big problem is that at any one time , and certain percentage is on sick leave . They too become ill from all the viruses and shite going around . On top of that , they are over-stressed and burnt-out , which leaves them , ironically , more susceptible to viruses and such . Meaning less staff at a time when the ' system ' needs them the most .

Anyway , these are problems that aren't going away overnight no matter how much money we throw at it . What folks need to do is to keep calm , relax and chill . We all have a resposibility to keep our shite together and try to live as healthy a life as possible . Don't smoke , don't drink to excess , stay the fawk away from junk or fast food . Exercise , and I just mean walk or a cycle when it's nice out . Slow the pace of life down to take a bus or train ride rather then drive everywhere . EAT healthy and make good choices , and hopefully , should you ever need the ER , there wouldn't be a 26 hour wait because it's full of folks who really didn't need to be there but they just made lots of bad choices , not all , mind you , but lots .
Just my 2

[BigMass]

the problem is their idea of saving money is to cut service and keep the same failing system instead of changing the system and increasing service. If you dont change the system, nothing is going to change. That's pretty obvious lol. Yet when anything is every mentioned politically about changing or revising out healthcare system people freak out like idiots. So the same shit remains and nothing will ever change.

[Xtrema]

1) Emergency is mis-used

2) Population is aging.

3) Law does not allow alternative. Private business can always react to market demand WAY faster government can.

4) There's no health professional willing to work in Canada because of #3.

5) Klein shortsighted? Yes. But none of his remedy was allowed to implement and even lead to his early retirement.

Stalmach will just spend what we don't have til everyone is happy. He is about to raise taxes to cover free HC premium which in turn screws the middle class. Yeah, thanks a lot.

Communism didn't work in China, Russia or Cuba. Why would people think it'll work in Canada?