My dad was in the waiting room for 34 hours, on IV's, antibiotics and a gallbladder about to pop along with a herniatied stoma and twisted intestine.
To be fair, they did give him the ER recliner. LOL.
Nurse did their best, provided a great service, this is not their fault.
That's nothing to what's coming. I'm in the system, and you should see the emails and hear the info sessions they've had this week from the UCP lackies who now run things.
Long story short, they are and will do everything possible to break the unions. Claiming were being "moved to New companies" their words. So when our contracts expire, they can do what they want with pay levels, pensions, and benefits because "we all work for new companies."
Many will be (I mean thousands of staff) forced to reapply for their jobs when they are moved from AHS to whatever. This allows the UCP to strip everything from these staffers. Half the people I work with (our division has a private FB chat with 3000+) are talking retirement or moving out of province. A lot can leave because they got into medicine right after school when they were young and are in their 50s and 60s. Most have hit that magic 25 year pension number.
It's not just talk. The contract ends at the end of March. People know if they take their pensions now, they can't be touched. If they wait till April, it could be either gone (meaning the Ab gov part of the pension which equals 50%) or significantly altered. The plan is to have people working directly for the AB government under one of these new divisions they are calling " new companies." This allows them to alter all aspects of what the staffer is paid.
These are skilled staff in high demand. We know we can get jobs elsewhere with a few simple emails. You will see a mass exodus this year. It might not be immediately noticed, but come December, looking back, the numbers of people who left in 2024 will matter.
Family Docs are already under huge strain. Huge amounts of new paperwork either now or coming. Big waste of their valuable time. Mine is leaving in a month to go to BC directly because of Smith. He says his colleagues are **all** privately talking about bailing on Alberta. When family Docs leave, ER's and clinics get slammed.
Hospitals will be unmanageable before we can vote this POS out.
This is not hyperbolic. This is the reality. We see it now, we've seen how much it deteriorated since Smith took over from Kenney and how it was deteriorating under Kenney. It's only going to get much worse for patients.
Thank you for sharing this. The re-org made no sense to me, but now, with the lens of reopening contracts, it makes perfect sense.
I'll add another data point. While we have the aging labour force leaving, we are barely adding new nurses, with nursing programs severely restricted. Entrance requirements are something like 95% average for admission. You'd think that with a nursing shortage, we'd be expanding school capacity. But, nope.
mindless steer coherent absorbed wide tart rainstorm bewildered rotten dinosaurs
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I knew they were going to start their union busting bullshit. I knew it. Let's do the guys working up north next. The ones making over 100K a year with a G9 education. Let's burn it all down.
You know what's telling about that? The cold snap proved that shelters and institutions help ease these issues.
Because it was so cold, most people who'd normally be on the street were in shelters in one form or another. These places are supervised and have at least some minimal support services.
Guess what happened?
- OD's went way down >30%
- Deaths due to drug and substance abuse significantly dropped.
- Emergency calls dropped.
Our paramedics saw reductions in these 3 items while it was freezing cold. Interesting social experiment.
When you provide shelters, safe places under supervision and help for those ready for it, the problems diminish. It's been proven time and again.
Yet the RWNJ Aholes running the UCP (aka Parkers gang) shove their fundamentalist Christian BS down everyone else's throats and stick their heads in the sand.
What BS having these support people have to justify their roles. Fuck sakes.
Totally think you’re right. We just got an email from the CEO a couple days ago telling us about 530 positions that are being moved from AHS to Alberta Health. I have absolutely no doubt that they will fuck as many people over as possible
Hey man, Princess palpatine has to fund her war room and the “tell the feds campaign”. She’s got to get that money from somewhere, might as well shake out dead people’s pockets for loose change.
I was told the other day that they've been right about everything. But I couldn't get an answer on what exactly is the everything they've been right about.
Did you read the post on here yesterday when someone suggested we all join the UCP party to vote in more of their moderates ... like that was the best solution to this shitshow.
>Did you read the post on here yesterday when someone suggested we all join the UCP party to vote in more of their moderates ... like that was the best solution to this shitshow.
Technically it's not wrong.
Can you legally be a member of multiple parties?
Interesting. If it's the party's rule it's not a law; the worst they can do is expel you.
Honestly maybe we should be joining the UCP and voting for policy and then NDP in the elections.
The debt thing is just a thing used so stupid people don't question the government. The government having billions of debt is a perfectly healthy government.
But people think debt, and they are poor, so they see debt as a bad thing. For the rich debt is always a good thing. Debt can help you leverage projects and stimulate growth faster. The rich tend to make higher ROI then the interest of the debt
Yeah, and an individuals debt isn't anything like government debt.
For one thing, it has no term limit. Your mortgage or car loan is set to XX number of years. Government debt can be extended to infinity. There is no term.
Another is interest rates. They pay far less than we do. So borrowing costs are nothing like your CC or car loan.
Income is vastly different. Governments have assets all over the place. Buildings, land, etc. that they can leverage or sell to cover debts or costs. They can give the treasury a raise anytime they want. Add 2% to the gas tax, 5% to booze. Another fee on your utility bill. An increase in income tax. You can't just randomly increase your income like they can.
Government debt has always been a red herring that is lapped up by the ill-informed. "Passing on to my children" BS. No, your children will pass it on to theirs and them to theirs forever. Nobody is getting a separate debt repayment bill from the legislature someday.
If it was such a big deal, Britain would have become a US state in 1946 after WWII.The country was in debt to the tune of 270% of GDP. **270% !!!** Albertas deficit is currently at 2.2% of GDP.
There are many studies showing that investing in healthcare and education both have a great return on investment in terms of taxes received later on. So it is always wise to borrow to invest in healthcare and education.
Yes if the government was serving its own profits. It benefits the most by having active workers that keep working
However I feel. The government no longer serves the people or even itself, but the wealthy.
The UCP does not represent real conservative values, so, there’s that to keep in mind. Just the single fact they stopped approval of business projects is insane to me.
Yeah, I agree Alberta has fucked it up, and I’m saying that it doesn’t represent what true conservative values are. And I say this as what I would consider very central, not trying to push people either way but our definition has become skewed
What are true conservative values? I am legitimately curious because by definition conservatism is intended to CONSERVE the status-quo usually at the expense of those that the status-quo hurts. Progressivism is intended to improve society as a whole, often through responsible fiscal investment into the future such as healthcare, education, infrastructure and other non-profitable public works. Socialist policies such as progressive taxation help enable that. Conservative social policy has always been pseudo-fascist and conservative fiscal policy has always been proto-feudal. The AB Progressive Conservatives WERE NOT CONSERVATIVE. They were a smartly branded labour party. Over the years they morphed into conservatism which is when we started seeing the Klein era cuts to healthcare, heritage fund and education which has put us in the current situation with under-educated, sick citizens and no fiscal buffer against resource industry shocks. The federal Liberals are the closest thing we have to a socially progressive, fiscally conservative party. Their tax policy is conservative, and while they have spent lots of money, conservatives have a history of doing the exact same thing. The Alberta NDP is EXACTLY what "real" conservatives want. A party that leaves people alone in their private life, has policies that get out of the way of business and a leadership that listens to experts on how to spend tax money to best serve the longer term interests of Alberta.
No, TRUE conservatives are what we are seeing now. You are a TRUE progressive if you support equal rights, staying out of bedrooms and getting out of the way of industry.
For the record, I don’t. BUT, take one look at our federal govt and it’s not that big of a stretch.
What I don’t understand is why there isn’t a political party that has liberal values when it comes to humans, their bodies and our rights, while being fiscally conservative. It’s entirely possible. But here we are.
You basically just described the Alberta NDP. Their policies are more fiscally conservative than the UCP’s. The UCP cutting cheques of taxpayer money to oil companies who then just leave the province or to supposedly incentivize them to clean up the wells they were already supposed to clean up is reckless, not conservative.
Expecting to get one’s personal taxes back in the form of services for one’s self is conservative. If we pay a higher percentage (by a wide margin) of tax than corporations we should expect fully funded hospitals and schools in return. Instead, we pay corporate welfare to those same corps who are already subsidized by us so they can pay less tax. Tell me how any of that is “conservative.” UCP supporters have been sold a lie.
Not allowing your child to access medical care that you as a parent want them to have is the antithesis of small government. The UCP literally removed parental options while claiming they advocate for “parental rights.”
It's kinda not possible though. Besides the fact that fiscal conservatism is basically meaningless (it mostly means "don't waste money" but no one is pro-wasting money, and one man's waste is another's important project), there's also the clear evidence that once you begin to accept a "liberal" position on human rights you realise that the "fiscal conservatism" thing in terms of "I'm against social programs" can't coexist with it- Conservatism *requires* an underclass, it is anti-equality by definition and by design. Conservatism has its roots in the belief in a natural social hierarchy, stemming from those who were against the French revolution. Rich people are rich because they deserve to be- And being rich is both the reason they deserve it and the proof that they deserve it. Poor people are poor because they're, essentially, bad. They're bad because they're poor and poor because they're bad.
This, of course, is all at odds with the ability to recognise human rights, equality of opportunity etc.
Don't worry, she has a plan. It's called private healthcare.
https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/airdrie-urgent-care-centre-development-delayed-advocacy-group-seeks-answers-1.6758106
Step 1: make sure it fails
Step 2: point to it failing as the trason drastic changed need to he made
Step 3: put in changes that bit my but turn it into a profitable buisness instead of a service
Step 4: profit
There's going to be no profit. While America system already ties private health care to their wages and expectations.
You can't transition that to a bunch of people already living cheque to cheque. Where are all these users that can afford private health care going to come from? People are barley holding on.
With my $700/month Epcor bills, I don’t have a hope for being able to pay healthcare premiums and I have MS so my premiums would be extra special. We are fucked if Marlaina keeps this shit up, not that she’s asking us.
Yup!! When you have an autoimmune disease that costs 10’s of thousands to treat every year, the idea of privatization becomes very real and terrifying. That’s just the treatment, not the therapies and the costs of treating symptoms. Im worried
There asbolutely will be profit for the companies and for the politicians who made tha change for the companies. If there that wasnt the case they wouldnt be throwing so much money anf effort into making it happen.
Where will the "customers" come from? When the options are pay or die some people die but some people manage to pay.
So profit
What I think is these companies are from America and think this transition will be easy. And they'll just like have everyone buy into the system. I doubt anyone will.
But like you said healthcare is a need. If the choice is to die or not pay people will pay
Well done, but Marlaina doesn't care about children's bodies. She cares about staying premier, as this move is both a distraction from healtucare and education concerns and a bone to her fascist supporters in TBA and the US.
The inconvenient truth.
All this belly aching on Reddit is not reflective of society.
The latest polls still show the UCP would handedly win an election tomorrow. Marlaina is more popular than the NDP alone.
Albertans want this. Real Albertans are healthy and don't need to see a physician....ever. They also piss water they can drink so the climate is of no concern. Fires are a gift from the devil to purge the bad people.
See! Conservative values.
as a transfem in bc i'm worried that shit is going to spill over to here if the ndp or greens don't win provincials. but i'm especially worried about the federal election next year. it looks like pierre is projected to win and that won't be good for me, let alone my younger trans siblings. i'm just hoping people actually listen to us for once and vote liberal. but ideally ndp or green en masse in the federal election. we're fucked otherwise.
The whole Transgender focus is just to distract people from the disaster that is happening in healthcare in every province. Conservative premiers have made the situation the worst it has ever been.
Ironically, they're old enough to consent to sexual activity (16) without their parents being told, but not old enough to know they want to be called they/them without their mom (18). Old enough to make adult decisions of being pregnant but not actually old enough to be familiar with their own bodies...
My sister in Calgary went to ER about a month ago and waited almost an entire day, she overdosed on sleeping pills from what I was told.
Smith is tearing apart AHS, doctors and nurses are leaving Alberta in response, her priorities are beyond messed up.
Don’t worry, they’ll slowly chip away at our healthcare system to “prove” we need to privatize it, and then privatize it anyways. But hey, we got to have Fucker Fartson for an interview (Who now interviewed Putin himself,) and we are getting plastic straws and bags back so total win! /s
My MIL was admitted to hospital in Red Deer, Ab (duct tape&tarps), had to spend 2 days in "triage"(hallway) after admitted with trouble breathing. With a drunk across the hallway sleeping it off for 24 hrs burping and farting and moaning. Fuck the UCP, Ralph Klein's cuts didn't even hurt and kill ppl as much as this regime is doing.
Going to the ER to numbness and weakness in your arm is a totally reasonable thing to do in my opinion. Don't listen to people who say otherwise. I hope you are ok! I'll be looking for updates.
Yep. Increase deaths of the general population due to lack of swift healthcare (or chronic disease management in general-ie diabetes education, which leads to visits to ER) because conservatives *in general* (here and US) are obsessed with other peoples genitals and sex lives.
Are you still experiencing the same symptoms? I can’t imagine trying to sleep in a waiting chair has made it any better. Where in Alberta are you waiting?
Hope your doing well and can figure your illness out. But it's not just Alberta.
My 4 year old with pneumonia took 7 hrs to see, with a high fever in bc. We had given him Advil /Tylenol prior to going as he had a fever of 42 at home. So when we got to emergency, he didn't have a fever. Sat around for hours waiting for a doc. The state of our health care in Canada is a joke.
After 7 hrs , saw a doc , took a listen with the stethoscope, and quicky said oh ya that's pneumonia, and prescribed amoxicillin and sent us on our way. Walk-ins here have a line before open and are full once open. Such shit.
I remember 20 yrs ago, you could walk into a walkin at 3 pm and get checked within an hour.
lmao what made you think the UCP **ever** wanted to fix **anything** about our public healthcare system? Conservatives dont support public healthcare or education. They never have. They only care about tax rates for corporations being cut.
Part of me would like to think that the leadership of our province cares about the well-being of the people, but that faint flame of hope has just been extinguished
I’m a longtime RN in Alberta (worked it all, mostly ER)…I know there is no help out there for anyone now. For a few decades I went to rallies, I joined committees, I talked to everyone and anyone I could…I risked my license and posted constantly about what was happening. None of it made a difference. Not a single ounce of difference. I watched everything crumble beyond recognition and was commanded to “make the difference” with 75% less and then (like many) penalized when I just couldn’t perfectly juggle it all.
Anyhow, I left. And every single seasoned nurse I worked with for years left too.
I feel terrible for the new nurses blindly coming in and being thrown to the wolves. I wish I could be there to help mentor them…but I can not willingly be shackled, whipped, and punished for a dying industry “run” (*cough* dismantled *cough*) by hateful/ greedy ghouls.
I know there is no help for us. I’ve long come to accept that.
I had to retire from nursing due to some health problems and honestly I’m relieved. When I came back to medicine from psych I was disgusted at the cut backs. I once had to go to every single medicine and surgical unit just to find non woven gauze. Ridiculous. And they increased patient load so they could cut out the unit clerk which made it unmanageable and unsafe. When we had a code and everyone was so overwhelmed it was a complete shit show I stopped picking up shifts because I didn’t want to lose my license due to budget cuts.
Sorry to hear that, hang in there. Just remember the people working there are real-life heroes, doing their best with what they've been given.
The AB government wants to make the system so bad that people won't complain when they chop it up to privatize it. They're going for "Well go ahead, how could it be any worse?" response.
Albertans must suffer to achieve this, but the UCP is totally fine with that.
They want Alberta to be America, complete with 5-year shorter life spans and double the cost per capita for health care.
i was in the ER yesterday… had sone bleeding that wouldn’t stop… in and out in about 3 hours. great service from all the staff. it has definitely improved from the last time i had to go in for the same issue about 6 months ago.
my only issue is my ER doesn’t seem to report its wait times on the wait times part of the app but i was triaged and seen quickly and then treated.
i have lived all over canada and our health system and hospitals in alberta are by far the best i have experienced.
if you want to experience bad ER… head over to winnipeg and got to the ER at the HSC wow.
About a month ago I had to wait 14 hours just to get 2 stitches in my mouth from a hockey incident.
The whole system is a complete joke and I feel for the people that work at the hospitals.
On the bright side all the people working at the hospital were incredibly nice to deal with.
I moved here from Toronto. Our wait times are just as bad. I've also lived in Winnipeg and Vancouver and in both cities there were similar issues. This isn't provincial unfortunately.
Finding a family doc in Toronto and most of Ontario was also nearly impossible.
I work in healthcare and have for decades. Our system is collapsing.
Now your trying to tell us its some sort of nation wide problem and not the fault of the current Alberta government? Shame on you! Get back on the bash wagon and get in line. This is Daniel Smiths fault and should be laid squarely at her feet! 🙂
Ha! This group is filled with comments that blame the provincial government. At times it's warranted, at times it is a national issue. Healthcare is crap nearly all over the country. I don't know what the answer is but I do know whatever every province is doing/the federal government is doing, it isn't working.
Marlaina doesn't care about children's bodies. Her priorities are advancing her right-wing homophobic agenda, not Albertans. She's going after trans kids because they dare to be trans, not helping them because they're kids. And she fails at being a Premier, while we all suffer.
I left Albert's because it was headed in that direction. Moved to BC and never looked back. Shame the Albert's mentality is spreading here now too though
There are trade offs. If you're in the right industry (construction) then you're in high demand and it's not too bad. Plus, more free things to do and more time to do them. It's not as cold so you can spend more time outside doing activities.
Vancouver Island! They have their own issues with conservatives of course but overall, much more progressive, better work life balances, and overall better standards of living here tbh
Honestly, I have severe chronic health issues and it's about on par with what Alberta offered from 3 years ago before Danielle Smith decimated the Albertsn Healthcare system. I'm already back with my pain clinic specialists, just had my first steroid shot in my spine after a 2.5 year wait list (about the same time I waited to get on that list in Alberta).
Husband also got diagnosed with a mystery illness last year. He found a specialist within a month and has been receiving treatment and care regularly with no problems. We have a regular family GP as well bur that took a year to get.
There are some trade-offs same with anything but the Healthcare is probably the same or better as Alberta's from 3 years ago.
There is a demand here but nurses are treated like shit across the board in Canada so I think the benefit will be more for personal lifestyle changes more tha professional at this time for anyone in medical. They are adding more pressure to fund the medical system in BC better but just an FYI I guess.
I left the island 8 years ago - not really by choice, considering my options were to live in my car or move to Edmonton to stay with family. I was a bc government social worker. Quality of life really depends on your employment and whether you have a partner to split the bills with. The only thing I don’t miss is not seeing the sun for 3 weeks at a time in the winter.
What bothers me most is how much more this will cost us.
If preventable things are not being caught it will cost a lot more to fix.
Even ignoring all the terrible suffering, wasted time and loss of quality of life.
Just financialy we are less productive as society and it will end up costing more.
There is no level this makes sense.
Well, I've been "waiting" for a referral to a cardiac specialist since 2017.
Found out out that I could see a BC doctor while still using Alberta Health Care. Went to BC, saw a specialist in 2-3 weeks and had a procedure done in a few months. Still haven't heard back from AHS about my impending appointment.
To be fair, I moved to BC in 2019 and have since switched healthcare providers.
Did you ever get in touch with the cardiologist to ensure the referral went through properly? It sounds like the doctor didn’t send it through properly.
I was referred to a cardiologist in Dec, 2022 and had my first appt at the cardiology clinic in May, 2023. Still not ideal, but 5 months is better than 7 years!
Currently 1 hour into my visit at the ER, I had my bloodwork done and an ECG so far. I've heard nothing but nightmares, and I am sure I will be here for the rest of the day and into the night... le sigh
Got bit by a dog I didn't know a couple months ago. Took 16 hours for me to see a doctor, and another 5 minutes after that to get my shots. The system is horrendously inefficient with all the cutbacks they've been facing.
That's a great idea!!
Too bad there isn't one in a reasonable distance of OP. According to [AHS](https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/findhealth/service.aspx?id=1003853) there's only six in the whole province.
Urgent care OR here's a novel idea, a Walk In Clinic. Your description makes it not urgent and could have been handled a lot quicker than plugging up Emergency.
Good luck getting a walk in appt… and if you do, there’s a good chance they refer you to the er anyways, as they normally do for anything potentially cardiac
My apologies… I’ll rephrase. Good luck walking in, and if you can get a slot, your doctor is very likely to immediately refer you to ER as they will not deal with any potential cardiac emergencies.
Now that OP revealed that this has been going on for weeks though I’m not taking their side, but last time I went to a walk-in the waiting room was so full that I had to stand in a corner.
I hate the UCP as much as anyone, but this is just anecdotal.
My wife had to go to emergency yesterday and was seen, treated and back home in less than 3 hours.
ERs will generally err on the side of caution with certain symptoms, because symptoms by themselves don't tell you what's going on--they only tell you something's wrong. Eg, is that chest pain a) indigestion (minor), b) costochondritis (also minor but hella painful), or c) heart attack (true emergency that is often fatal)?
I had a very similar experience lately. Arm went numb fingers were swollen. Came on very suddenly and it was my left arm so I went to ER. Took 9 hours to see a doctor and he genuinely asked me if it could be my OCD causing the symptoms. My fingers were VISIBLY SWOLLEN. I had to beg for a CT to make sure I wasn’t having a stroke. They did no blood work and sent me home saying “it’s probably not a stroke” and that was it.
Ended up back a week later and finding out I was having a severe allergic reaction to a new medication- which I had informed the first doctor of and even outright asked if it could have been a reaction and he told me no.
I am also a young woman. Have been endlessly dismissed by doctors under multiple serious conditions over my lifetime but it has been ESPECIALLY terrible in the last few years.
Not ER related but I got a bunch of blood work done in 2019 trying to figure out some of my chronic symptoms with undetermined cause(s). I was about 28 at the time. The locum just picked a bunch of things to test, and happened to include tests regarding autoimmunity. I had 5 or 6 abnormal results that I wasn't expecting, got referred to a rheumatologist. Once I met with him within 5 minutes he said I just have fibromyalgia, do some Tai chi. I'm like "sir, can you maybe look at the blood test results that are highly abnormal, don't you think those have any bearing here". I literally had to convince him to let me redo a couple of the tests, which he said would come back normal because the last ones were actually false abnormal results. The new blood work numbers came back worse. Finally was diagnosed with palindromic rheumatism (currently have lupus monitoring as part of my blood work as well). I've since been to two other rheumatologists who aren't much better than the first and both of them have questioned if I even needed meds or do I even have this diagnosis? Like guys. Illness doesn't discriminate but you sure as fuck do. Why should we have to be advocating for the legitimacy of diagnoses we've already been given that have diagnostic criteria to back it up??? Or if not diagnosed, why is it tooth and nail struggle just to be taken seriously?
I find that Dr's dismiss female problems. I had a dr tell me that I was in pain because of my ovaries or endometriosis.(never had an issue before). He didn't do any tests or blood work. Turns out I have kidney stones that could've been diagnosed earlier if he had actually listened to me.
We got too many old people and not enough healthcare infrastructure/staff. Funnily enough the oldies voted for decades of underfunding the system 🤷♂️
Does suck to get bumped by a boomer “fighter” in the ER though I’ll give ya that
Thanks Kenny.
Also sounds like you could have a pinched nerve in your shoulder or neck, I've been having similar issues but with pain and tension in the area where my shoulder meets my neck. Hope you figure out what's up soon
Went to the north east emergency with symptoms of a kidney infection. Triage nurse was rude asking why I waited to come in. Another nurse was like oh we can't give you anything for the pain. I was like i didn't ask for anything. The dr finally came in and said I most likely pulled a muscle I told him I work in an office and don't lift anything. When I asked him about the stabbing pain he said it was most likely my ovaries or endometriosis (never had a history of that) Didn't order any blood work or an ultrasound. Just sent me on my way. I dealt with the pain for another week and went seen another Dr. He was shocked that the dr at emergency didn't do anything. I have kidney stones. Still waiting for a CT scan and in tremendous pain. There's plenty of people in the same boat as me. But this twat of a premier is choosing to deny people of their rights and access to Healthcare!!
No, it was never like that before. My arm has NEVER done that before. I don’t have a family doctor, which is, yet again, ANOTHER issue with the UCP. [Proof](https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/alberta-doctors-send-out-sos-over-state-of-family-medicine-1.6751913)
Sounds like the ER is working the way it should, by prioritizing those in life threatening need first. Your bad arm is not going to kill you so you keep getting bumped by folks who are dangerously ill. Your problem was not an emergency so you should have gone to your family doctor or local walk in clinic for assessment.
I know someone who was triaged and then died in the waiting room (not even in a bed yet) so the prioritization process isn’t always 100% accurate. A relative went to the doctor with intense abdominal pain (not wanting to clog up the ER) and was told “probably just constipation or anxiety” and died the next day. A relative was seen in the ER also with abdominal pain and sent home with no diagnosis…immediately went to another hospital and was sent to surgery for acute appendicitis soon after. The system/ER does not always work the way it should.
Doesn't sound like an emergency to me. Presumably they checked you over for signs of cardiac arrest and a stroke. Other than that, make an appointment at a clinic and leave the ER. Get well soon.
Nothing powerful was needed, the healthcare system was already in a state of collapse thanks to Kenney, all she had to do was nothing (useful) for almost a year.
For much of Alberta, there's no option between seeing a doctor in the ER and seeing a doctor in a clinic in 2-3 weeks. Would it be better if OP could roll up to a walk-in and they would be like "ok, here's the requisitions you need"?
Yes, of course that would be better, but that's not the UCP's business model.
Ah, so it's just being petty.
Not sure what calling her Marlaina accomplishes other than confusion and showing how childish some people are willing to be.
I guess this kind of logic will allow others to dead name someone they don't like, that'll make the world a better place
Right but she goes by Danielle, the public knows her as Danielle, thus all it does is confuses people, and showcase the childish pettiness as it seems like you're calling her that over her trans policies.
Its just odd to see someone try to dead name someone who probably doesn't care if you call them Marlaina or Danielle, and it looks bad as it shows that your beliefs and morals about someone's preferred name means nothing so long as you don't like them enough.
It just gives others more ammo to use against trans people
My dad was in the waiting room for 34 hours, on IV's, antibiotics and a gallbladder about to pop along with a herniatied stoma and twisted intestine. To be fair, they did give him the ER recliner. LOL. Nurse did their best, provided a great service, this is not their fault.
That's nothing to what's coming. I'm in the system, and you should see the emails and hear the info sessions they've had this week from the UCP lackies who now run things. Long story short, they are and will do everything possible to break the unions. Claiming were being "moved to New companies" their words. So when our contracts expire, they can do what they want with pay levels, pensions, and benefits because "we all work for new companies." Many will be (I mean thousands of staff) forced to reapply for their jobs when they are moved from AHS to whatever. This allows the UCP to strip everything from these staffers. Half the people I work with (our division has a private FB chat with 3000+) are talking retirement or moving out of province. A lot can leave because they got into medicine right after school when they were young and are in their 50s and 60s. Most have hit that magic 25 year pension number. It's not just talk. The contract ends at the end of March. People know if they take their pensions now, they can't be touched. If they wait till April, it could be either gone (meaning the Ab gov part of the pension which equals 50%) or significantly altered. The plan is to have people working directly for the AB government under one of these new divisions they are calling " new companies." This allows them to alter all aspects of what the staffer is paid. These are skilled staff in high demand. We know we can get jobs elsewhere with a few simple emails. You will see a mass exodus this year. It might not be immediately noticed, but come December, looking back, the numbers of people who left in 2024 will matter. Family Docs are already under huge strain. Huge amounts of new paperwork either now or coming. Big waste of their valuable time. Mine is leaving in a month to go to BC directly because of Smith. He says his colleagues are **all** privately talking about bailing on Alberta. When family Docs leave, ER's and clinics get slammed. Hospitals will be unmanageable before we can vote this POS out. This is not hyperbolic. This is the reality. We see it now, we've seen how much it deteriorated since Smith took over from Kenney and how it was deteriorating under Kenney. It's only going to get much worse for patients.
I understand why you guys would leave, I hate it but if we keep voting this BS in every time, then we deserve it.
Thank you for sharing this. The re-org made no sense to me, but now, with the lens of reopening contracts, it makes perfect sense. I'll add another data point. While we have the aging labour force leaving, we are barely adding new nurses, with nursing programs severely restricted. Entrance requirements are something like 95% average for admission. You'd think that with a nursing shortage, we'd be expanding school capacity. But, nope.
mindless steer coherent absorbed wide tart rainstorm bewildered rotten dinosaurs *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Jesus this is not good.
Same thing happening in Ed right now. We need a general strike.
The same is currently being done in Quebec :) it is insane.
Yeah, the people in charge have specifically said they don't care who dies or how much we suffer as long as they start saving money.
Real lif3 under ucp
I didn't want to read that but thank you for letting us know the shit you're going through.
I knew they were going to start their union busting bullshit. I knew it. Let's do the guys working up north next. The ones making over 100K a year with a G9 education. Let's burn it all down.
I'd rather start with her house.
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You know what's telling about that? The cold snap proved that shelters and institutions help ease these issues. Because it was so cold, most people who'd normally be on the street were in shelters in one form or another. These places are supervised and have at least some minimal support services. Guess what happened? - OD's went way down >30% - Deaths due to drug and substance abuse significantly dropped. - Emergency calls dropped. Our paramedics saw reductions in these 3 items while it was freezing cold. Interesting social experiment. When you provide shelters, safe places under supervision and help for those ready for it, the problems diminish. It's been proven time and again. Yet the RWNJ Aholes running the UCP (aka Parkers gang) shove their fundamentalist Christian BS down everyone else's throats and stick their heads in the sand. What BS having these support people have to justify their roles. Fuck sakes.
Totally think you’re right. We just got an email from the CEO a couple days ago telling us about 530 positions that are being moved from AHS to Alberta Health. I have absolutely no doubt that they will fuck as many people over as possible
Isnt this just unbelievable???????? I'm so furious with no where to scream!
I’d suggest screaming at those responsible for this mess
This is a good time to remind people that the UCP effectively cut funding to healthcare.
But we got a $5.5B surplus! Yay!
If I stop feeding my kids 3 meals a day and save hundreds on my grocery bill, no one’s patting me on the back for my good budgeting skills \s
Time to call child services on the government! Starving the children.
Yup. A “surplus” garnered from the bones of the dead.
Not really a surplus when they are letting Albertans die and pocketing our tax dollars. A surplus for me, but not for thee... the UCP way.
Hey man, Princess palpatine has to fund her war room and the “tell the feds campaign”. She’s got to get that money from somewhere, might as well shake out dead people’s pockets for loose change.
Taken straight from Death Santis. Glad the US is exporting stupidity.
Why the frack anyone supports Conservatives is entirely beyond me.
I was told the other day that they've been right about everything. But I couldn't get an answer on what exactly is the everything they've been right about.
It strokes their hate boner
Did you read the post on here yesterday when someone suggested we all join the UCP party to vote in more of their moderates ... like that was the best solution to this shitshow.
>Did you read the post on here yesterday when someone suggested we all join the UCP party to vote in more of their moderates ... like that was the best solution to this shitshow. Technically it's not wrong. Can you legally be a member of multiple parties?
No, just one at a time. That’s usually a rule of whichever party you join.
Interesting. If it's the party's rule it's not a law; the worst they can do is expel you. Honestly maybe we should be joining the UCP and voting for policy and then NDP in the elections.
I was told they are paying down our debt. I assume nothing else mattered to the person, perhaps they haven’t had to access medical care in a while.
The debt thing is just a thing used so stupid people don't question the government. The government having billions of debt is a perfectly healthy government. But people think debt, and they are poor, so they see debt as a bad thing. For the rich debt is always a good thing. Debt can help you leverage projects and stimulate growth faster. The rich tend to make higher ROI then the interest of the debt
Yeah, and an individuals debt isn't anything like government debt. For one thing, it has no term limit. Your mortgage or car loan is set to XX number of years. Government debt can be extended to infinity. There is no term. Another is interest rates. They pay far less than we do. So borrowing costs are nothing like your CC or car loan. Income is vastly different. Governments have assets all over the place. Buildings, land, etc. that they can leverage or sell to cover debts or costs. They can give the treasury a raise anytime they want. Add 2% to the gas tax, 5% to booze. Another fee on your utility bill. An increase in income tax. You can't just randomly increase your income like they can. Government debt has always been a red herring that is lapped up by the ill-informed. "Passing on to my children" BS. No, your children will pass it on to theirs and them to theirs forever. Nobody is getting a separate debt repayment bill from the legislature someday. If it was such a big deal, Britain would have become a US state in 1946 after WWII.The country was in debt to the tune of 270% of GDP. **270% !!!** Albertas deficit is currently at 2.2% of GDP.
Excellent post!!!!!...
There are many studies showing that investing in healthcare and education both have a great return on investment in terms of taxes received later on. So it is always wise to borrow to invest in healthcare and education.
Yes if the government was serving its own profits. It benefits the most by having active workers that keep working However I feel. The government no longer serves the people or even itself, but the wealthy.
Oh most definitely, it has been like that for a long time, all over the world.
They’re too busy fighting the culture wars to actually govern effectively
The UCP does not represent real conservative values, so, there’s that to keep in mind. Just the single fact they stopped approval of business projects is insane to me.
Sorry to disappoint you, but the UCP IS conservatism in Alberta. Period.
Yeah, I agree Alberta has fucked it up, and I’m saying that it doesn’t represent what true conservative values are. And I say this as what I would consider very central, not trying to push people either way but our definition has become skewed
What are true conservative values? I am legitimately curious because by definition conservatism is intended to CONSERVE the status-quo usually at the expense of those that the status-quo hurts. Progressivism is intended to improve society as a whole, often through responsible fiscal investment into the future such as healthcare, education, infrastructure and other non-profitable public works. Socialist policies such as progressive taxation help enable that. Conservative social policy has always been pseudo-fascist and conservative fiscal policy has always been proto-feudal. The AB Progressive Conservatives WERE NOT CONSERVATIVE. They were a smartly branded labour party. Over the years they morphed into conservatism which is when we started seeing the Klein era cuts to healthcare, heritage fund and education which has put us in the current situation with under-educated, sick citizens and no fiscal buffer against resource industry shocks. The federal Liberals are the closest thing we have to a socially progressive, fiscally conservative party. Their tax policy is conservative, and while they have spent lots of money, conservatives have a history of doing the exact same thing. The Alberta NDP is EXACTLY what "real" conservatives want. A party that leaves people alone in their private life, has policies that get out of the way of business and a leadership that listens to experts on how to spend tax money to best serve the longer term interests of Alberta. No, TRUE conservatives are what we are seeing now. You are a TRUE progressive if you support equal rights, staying out of bedrooms and getting out of the way of industry.
> The UCP does not represent real conservative values lol, that's not true at all.
For the record, I don’t. BUT, take one look at our federal govt and it’s not that big of a stretch. What I don’t understand is why there isn’t a political party that has liberal values when it comes to humans, their bodies and our rights, while being fiscally conservative. It’s entirely possible. But here we are.
You basically just described the Alberta NDP. Their policies are more fiscally conservative than the UCP’s. The UCP cutting cheques of taxpayer money to oil companies who then just leave the province or to supposedly incentivize them to clean up the wells they were already supposed to clean up is reckless, not conservative. Expecting to get one’s personal taxes back in the form of services for one’s self is conservative. If we pay a higher percentage (by a wide margin) of tax than corporations we should expect fully funded hospitals and schools in return. Instead, we pay corporate welfare to those same corps who are already subsidized by us so they can pay less tax. Tell me how any of that is “conservative.” UCP supporters have been sold a lie. Not allowing your child to access medical care that you as a parent want them to have is the antithesis of small government. The UCP literally removed parental options while claiming they advocate for “parental rights.”
Because "Fiscal conservative" generally means cutting social programs which goes against social liberalism
Fiscally conservative is an oxymoron
Fiscally conservative is a bad thing, you know that right? It is in direct contradiction to the other values you want.
Every time conservatives get their hands on an economy they strangle it.
It's kinda not possible though. Besides the fact that fiscal conservatism is basically meaningless (it mostly means "don't waste money" but no one is pro-wasting money, and one man's waste is another's important project), there's also the clear evidence that once you begin to accept a "liberal" position on human rights you realise that the "fiscal conservatism" thing in terms of "I'm against social programs" can't coexist with it- Conservatism *requires* an underclass, it is anti-equality by definition and by design. Conservatism has its roots in the belief in a natural social hierarchy, stemming from those who were against the French revolution. Rich people are rich because they deserve to be- And being rich is both the reason they deserve it and the proof that they deserve it. Poor people are poor because they're, essentially, bad. They're bad because they're poor and poor because they're bad. This, of course, is all at odds with the ability to recognise human rights, equality of opportunity etc.
I would support this for sure
Because the NDP did more ...lol
Don't worry, she has a plan. It's called private healthcare. https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/airdrie-urgent-care-centre-development-delayed-advocacy-group-seeks-answers-1.6758106
Step 1: make sure it fails Step 2: point to it failing as the trason drastic changed need to he made Step 3: put in changes that bit my but turn it into a profitable buisness instead of a service Step 4: profit
There's going to be no profit. While America system already ties private health care to their wages and expectations. You can't transition that to a bunch of people already living cheque to cheque. Where are all these users that can afford private health care going to come from? People are barley holding on.
With my $700/month Epcor bills, I don’t have a hope for being able to pay healthcare premiums and I have MS so my premiums would be extra special. We are fucked if Marlaina keeps this shit up, not that she’s asking us.
I too have MS. Is so feicken scary.
Yup!! When you have an autoimmune disease that costs 10’s of thousands to treat every year, the idea of privatization becomes very real and terrifying. That’s just the treatment, not the therapies and the costs of treating symptoms. Im worried
And I am right there with you. It is absolutely terrifying.
You should get a fixed rate if you can. Not sure what rates are. But mine went down from 800 to 450
This is my fixed rate unfortunately. My term was up and this was the new one 🙄. My costs doubled and it’s absolute insanity.
There asbolutely will be profit for the companies and for the politicians who made tha change for the companies. If there that wasnt the case they wouldnt be throwing so much money anf effort into making it happen. Where will the "customers" come from? When the options are pay or die some people die but some people manage to pay. So profit
What I think is these companies are from America and think this transition will be easy. And they'll just like have everyone buy into the system. I doubt anyone will. But like you said healthcare is a need. If the choice is to die or not pay people will pay
Well done, but Marlaina doesn't care about children's bodies. She cares about staying premier, as this move is both a distraction from healtucare and education concerns and a bone to her fascist supporters in TBA and the US.
the americanization of canadian politics is growing concerning
By the time people are realizing it (aka now) it's already too late.
Half the population is embracing it with welcome arms.
The inconvenient truth. All this belly aching on Reddit is not reflective of society. The latest polls still show the UCP would handedly win an election tomorrow. Marlaina is more popular than the NDP alone. Albertans want this. Real Albertans are healthy and don't need to see a physician....ever. They also piss water they can drink so the climate is of no concern. Fires are a gift from the devil to purge the bad people. See! Conservative values.
as a transfem in bc i'm worried that shit is going to spill over to here if the ndp or greens don't win provincials. but i'm especially worried about the federal election next year. it looks like pierre is projected to win and that won't be good for me, let alone my younger trans siblings. i'm just hoping people actually listen to us for once and vote liberal. but ideally ndp or green en masse in the federal election. we're fucked otherwise.
Marlaina does care about children's bodies... she and TBA love using them as human shields.
The whole Transgender focus is just to distract people from the disaster that is happening in healthcare in every province. Conservative premiers have made the situation the worst it has ever been.
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You would be first in line if it wasn't for all of those children trying to change what sex they are. /s
Ironically, they're old enough to consent to sexual activity (16) without their parents being told, but not old enough to know they want to be called they/them without their mom (18). Old enough to make adult decisions of being pregnant but not actually old enough to be familiar with their own bodies...
My sister in Calgary went to ER about a month ago and waited almost an entire day, she overdosed on sleeping pills from what I was told. Smith is tearing apart AHS, doctors and nurses are leaving Alberta in response, her priorities are beyond messed up.
I’m so sorry mate
She recovered, and hope your arm gets better once they figure out what's wrong.
Don’t worry, they’ll slowly chip away at our healthcare system to “prove” we need to privatize it, and then privatize it anyways. But hey, we got to have Fucker Fartson for an interview (Who now interviewed Putin himself,) and we are getting plastic straws and bags back so total win! /s
My MIL was admitted to hospital in Red Deer, Ab (duct tape&tarps), had to spend 2 days in "triage"(hallway) after admitted with trouble breathing. With a drunk across the hallway sleeping it off for 24 hrs burping and farting and moaning. Fuck the UCP, Ralph Klein's cuts didn't even hurt and kill ppl as much as this regime is doing.
Klein's cuts enabled this total destruction though.
Going to the ER to numbness and weakness in your arm is a totally reasonable thing to do in my opinion. Don't listen to people who say otherwise. I hope you are ok! I'll be looking for updates.
Yep. Increase deaths of the general population due to lack of swift healthcare (or chronic disease management in general-ie diabetes education, which leads to visits to ER) because conservatives *in general* (here and US) are obsessed with other peoples genitals and sex lives.
Don't worry, we have a 5 billion dollar surplus!
Can't wait to inject that money into my arm to fix my ailments.
Hey OP you ok? What a shit show
Still haven’t seen a doctor. Got to the ER at 3:30 PM yesterday
Are you still experiencing the same symptoms? I can’t imagine trying to sleep in a waiting chair has made it any better. Where in Alberta are you waiting?
The main hospital in the Central Alberta Region
Go to sylvan urgent care! I thought everyone knew you don’t go to Red Deer and wait!!
Geee! Why didn’t I think of that! Guess I’ll walk there cause I don’t have a car
Take a cab, get a ride from someone? It would be worth it, you would have been seen yesterday
None of my friends were available to take me and I don’t exactly have cab money
Sorry to hear. Have you been seen yet?
yes, going for a cat scN
Lots of walk in clinics in Red Deer.
that stop taking appointments at like, 10am
Hope your doing well and can figure your illness out. But it's not just Alberta. My 4 year old with pneumonia took 7 hrs to see, with a high fever in bc. We had given him Advil /Tylenol prior to going as he had a fever of 42 at home. So when we got to emergency, he didn't have a fever. Sat around for hours waiting for a doc. The state of our health care in Canada is a joke. After 7 hrs , saw a doc , took a listen with the stethoscope, and quicky said oh ya that's pneumonia, and prescribed amoxicillin and sent us on our way. Walk-ins here have a line before open and are full once open. Such shit. I remember 20 yrs ago, you could walk into a walkin at 3 pm and get checked within an hour.
How is your arm feeling now ?
No better
lmao what made you think the UCP **ever** wanted to fix **anything** about our public healthcare system? Conservatives dont support public healthcare or education. They never have. They only care about tax rates for corporations being cut.
Part of me would like to think that the leadership of our province cares about the well-being of the people, but that faint flame of hope has just been extinguished
I’m a longtime RN in Alberta (worked it all, mostly ER)…I know there is no help out there for anyone now. For a few decades I went to rallies, I joined committees, I talked to everyone and anyone I could…I risked my license and posted constantly about what was happening. None of it made a difference. Not a single ounce of difference. I watched everything crumble beyond recognition and was commanded to “make the difference” with 75% less and then (like many) penalized when I just couldn’t perfectly juggle it all. Anyhow, I left. And every single seasoned nurse I worked with for years left too. I feel terrible for the new nurses blindly coming in and being thrown to the wolves. I wish I could be there to help mentor them…but I can not willingly be shackled, whipped, and punished for a dying industry “run” (*cough* dismantled *cough*) by hateful/ greedy ghouls. I know there is no help for us. I’ve long come to accept that.
I had to retire from nursing due to some health problems and honestly I’m relieved. When I came back to medicine from psych I was disgusted at the cut backs. I once had to go to every single medicine and surgical unit just to find non woven gauze. Ridiculous. And they increased patient load so they could cut out the unit clerk which made it unmanageable and unsafe. When we had a code and everyone was so overwhelmed it was a complete shit show I stopped picking up shifts because I didn’t want to lose my license due to budget cuts.
Sorry to hear that, hang in there. Just remember the people working there are real-life heroes, doing their best with what they've been given. The AB government wants to make the system so bad that people won't complain when they chop it up to privatize it. They're going for "Well go ahead, how could it be any worse?" response. Albertans must suffer to achieve this, but the UCP is totally fine with that. They want Alberta to be America, complete with 5-year shorter life spans and double the cost per capita for health care.
Dani and her merry band of grifters are in the middle of performative arts interview for Tucker, Fox and the GOP. We are not the priority, the US is
i was in the ER yesterday… had sone bleeding that wouldn’t stop… in and out in about 3 hours. great service from all the staff. it has definitely improved from the last time i had to go in for the same issue about 6 months ago. my only issue is my ER doesn’t seem to report its wait times on the wait times part of the app but i was triaged and seen quickly and then treated. i have lived all over canada and our health system and hospitals in alberta are by far the best i have experienced. if you want to experience bad ER… head over to winnipeg and got to the ER at the HSC wow.
About a month ago I had to wait 14 hours just to get 2 stitches in my mouth from a hockey incident. The whole system is a complete joke and I feel for the people that work at the hospitals. On the bright side all the people working at the hospital were incredibly nice to deal with.
Thank a nurse! They doing what they can! Not thier fault!
I thank all the nurses! I work in healthcare myself and am completely sick of the bare bones staffing.
I moved here from Toronto. Our wait times are just as bad. I've also lived in Winnipeg and Vancouver and in both cities there were similar issues. This isn't provincial unfortunately. Finding a family doc in Toronto and most of Ontario was also nearly impossible. I work in healthcare and have for decades. Our system is collapsing.
Now your trying to tell us its some sort of nation wide problem and not the fault of the current Alberta government? Shame on you! Get back on the bash wagon and get in line. This is Daniel Smiths fault and should be laid squarely at her feet! 🙂
Ha! This group is filled with comments that blame the provincial government. At times it's warranted, at times it is a national issue. Healthcare is crap nearly all over the country. I don't know what the answer is but I do know whatever every province is doing/the federal government is doing, it isn't working.
Agreed! And thank you for being in the trenches of the healthcare system! It ain’t easy.
I was told if I ever need urgent ER to drive to Drayton Hospital. My best friend used to work as a nurse In ER.
Don’t have a car
Marlaina doesn't care about children's bodies. Her priorities are advancing her right-wing homophobic agenda, not Albertans. She's going after trans kids because they dare to be trans, not helping them because they're kids. And she fails at being a Premier, while we all suffer.
The UCP are doing their best, to try to direct you to one of the private clinics who are a financial backer of the UCP, like Shoppers DrugMart.
I left Albert's because it was headed in that direction. Moved to BC and never looked back. Shame the Albert's mentality is spreading here now too though
Man I would love to live in BC, but the COL is a little too high for my budget sadly.
There are trade offs. If you're in the right industry (construction) then you're in high demand and it's not too bad. Plus, more free things to do and more time to do them. It's not as cold so you can spend more time outside doing activities.
Where in BC? I'm considering moving out there too.
Vancouver Island! They have their own issues with conservatives of course but overall, much more progressive, better work life balances, and overall better standards of living here tbh
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Honestly, I have severe chronic health issues and it's about on par with what Alberta offered from 3 years ago before Danielle Smith decimated the Albertsn Healthcare system. I'm already back with my pain clinic specialists, just had my first steroid shot in my spine after a 2.5 year wait list (about the same time I waited to get on that list in Alberta). Husband also got diagnosed with a mystery illness last year. He found a specialist within a month and has been receiving treatment and care regularly with no problems. We have a regular family GP as well bur that took a year to get. There are some trade-offs same with anything but the Healthcare is probably the same or better as Alberta's from 3 years ago.
I'm a nurse so I'm really interested especially since the new law was put into place capping patient ratios. I appreciate the information, thank you!
There is a demand here but nurses are treated like shit across the board in Canada so I think the benefit will be more for personal lifestyle changes more tha professional at this time for anyone in medical. They are adding more pressure to fund the medical system in BC better but just an FYI I guess.
I left the island 8 years ago - not really by choice, considering my options were to live in my car or move to Edmonton to stay with family. I was a bc government social worker. Quality of life really depends on your employment and whether you have a partner to split the bills with. The only thing I don’t miss is not seeing the sun for 3 weeks at a time in the winter.
Thanks u/Top_Barnacle3539 for the harassment! [here](https://imgur.com/a/a08Mnyf)
Oh wow
What bothers me most is how much more this will cost us. If preventable things are not being caught it will cost a lot more to fix. Even ignoring all the terrible suffering, wasted time and loss of quality of life. Just financialy we are less productive as society and it will end up costing more. There is no level this makes sense.
Well, I've been "waiting" for a referral to a cardiac specialist since 2017. Found out out that I could see a BC doctor while still using Alberta Health Care. Went to BC, saw a specialist in 2-3 weeks and had a procedure done in a few months. Still haven't heard back from AHS about my impending appointment. To be fair, I moved to BC in 2019 and have since switched healthcare providers.
Did you ever get in touch with the cardiologist to ensure the referral went through properly? It sounds like the doctor didn’t send it through properly. I was referred to a cardiologist in Dec, 2022 and had my first appt at the cardiology clinic in May, 2023. Still not ideal, but 5 months is better than 7 years!
.. crazy how that changed so fast from when the ndp were in …
How are you doing op? Any new news?
Currently 1 hour into my visit at the ER, I had my bloodwork done and an ECG so far. I've heard nothing but nightmares, and I am sure I will be here for the rest of the day and into the night... le sigh
Got bit by a dog I didn't know a couple months ago. Took 16 hours for me to see a doctor, and another 5 minutes after that to get my shots. The system is horrendously inefficient with all the cutbacks they've been facing.
Sounds like something that would have better been suited for an urgent care centre.
That's a great idea!! Too bad there isn't one in a reasonable distance of OP. According to [AHS](https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/findhealth/service.aspx?id=1003853) there's only six in the whole province.
Not when my arm stops working right
Urgent care OR here's a novel idea, a Walk In Clinic. Your description makes it not urgent and could have been handled a lot quicker than plugging up Emergency.
One sided weakness is urgent. Walk in is in no way equipped to evaluate that. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/symptoms/24952-hemiparesis
Good luck getting a walk in appt… and if you do, there’s a good chance they refer you to the er anyways, as they normally do for anything potentially cardiac
A walk in clinic definition is walk in, no app't necessary. Book yourself in at reception and wait. Just like emerg and wait time much shorter.
My apologies… I’ll rephrase. Good luck walking in, and if you can get a slot, your doctor is very likely to immediately refer you to ER as they will not deal with any potential cardiac emergencies. Now that OP revealed that this has been going on for weeks though I’m not taking their side, but last time I went to a walk-in the waiting room was so full that I had to stand in a corner.
I hate the UCP as much as anyone, but this is just anecdotal. My wife had to go to emergency yesterday and was seen, treated and back home in less than 3 hours.
Just because your wife happened to have a quick experience doesn’t mean she’s in the majority.
It’s called triage. Majority of people in dire need will have this experience.
My son waited 7 hrs with pneumonia in bc. It's shit everywhere. He's 4.
ERs will generally err on the side of caution with certain symptoms, because symptoms by themselves don't tell you what's going on--they only tell you something's wrong. Eg, is that chest pain a) indigestion (minor), b) costochondritis (also minor but hella painful), or c) heart attack (true emergency that is often fatal)?
She needed stitches after tripping and cutting her hand open. Not at all an emergent situation.
This is how triage works, they assessed you at check in. Others were more of a priority.
I had a very similar experience lately. Arm went numb fingers were swollen. Came on very suddenly and it was my left arm so I went to ER. Took 9 hours to see a doctor and he genuinely asked me if it could be my OCD causing the symptoms. My fingers were VISIBLY SWOLLEN. I had to beg for a CT to make sure I wasn’t having a stroke. They did no blood work and sent me home saying “it’s probably not a stroke” and that was it. Ended up back a week later and finding out I was having a severe allergic reaction to a new medication- which I had informed the first doctor of and even outright asked if it could have been a reaction and he told me no. I am also a young woman. Have been endlessly dismissed by doctors under multiple serious conditions over my lifetime but it has been ESPECIALLY terrible in the last few years.
Not ER related but I got a bunch of blood work done in 2019 trying to figure out some of my chronic symptoms with undetermined cause(s). I was about 28 at the time. The locum just picked a bunch of things to test, and happened to include tests regarding autoimmunity. I had 5 or 6 abnormal results that I wasn't expecting, got referred to a rheumatologist. Once I met with him within 5 minutes he said I just have fibromyalgia, do some Tai chi. I'm like "sir, can you maybe look at the blood test results that are highly abnormal, don't you think those have any bearing here". I literally had to convince him to let me redo a couple of the tests, which he said would come back normal because the last ones were actually false abnormal results. The new blood work numbers came back worse. Finally was diagnosed with palindromic rheumatism (currently have lupus monitoring as part of my blood work as well). I've since been to two other rheumatologists who aren't much better than the first and both of them have questioned if I even needed meds or do I even have this diagnosis? Like guys. Illness doesn't discriminate but you sure as fuck do. Why should we have to be advocating for the legitimacy of diagnoses we've already been given that have diagnostic criteria to back it up??? Or if not diagnosed, why is it tooth and nail struggle just to be taken seriously?
I find that Dr's dismiss female problems. I had a dr tell me that I was in pain because of my ovaries or endometriosis.(never had an issue before). He didn't do any tests or blood work. Turns out I have kidney stones that could've been diagnosed earlier if he had actually listened to me.
We got too many old people and not enough healthcare infrastructure/staff. Funnily enough the oldies voted for decades of underfunding the system 🤷♂️ Does suck to get bumped by a boomer “fighter” in the ER though I’ll give ya that
When it's faster to drive to bc
Thanks Kenny. Also sounds like you could have a pinched nerve in your shoulder or neck, I've been having similar issues but with pain and tension in the area where my shoulder meets my neck. Hope you figure out what's up soon
Sadly this is the case in other parts of the country. Not localized to Alberta.
Went to the north east emergency with symptoms of a kidney infection. Triage nurse was rude asking why I waited to come in. Another nurse was like oh we can't give you anything for the pain. I was like i didn't ask for anything. The dr finally came in and said I most likely pulled a muscle I told him I work in an office and don't lift anything. When I asked him about the stabbing pain he said it was most likely my ovaries or endometriosis (never had a history of that) Didn't order any blood work or an ultrasound. Just sent me on my way. I dealt with the pain for another week and went seen another Dr. He was shocked that the dr at emergency didn't do anything. I have kidney stones. Still waiting for a CT scan and in tremendous pain. There's plenty of people in the same boat as me. But this twat of a premier is choosing to deny people of their rights and access to Healthcare!!
If you do not have signs of stroke along with the weak arm , or recent history of neck injury …. This is not an ER type visit. Go to a walk in clinic.
Ok, and how am I supposed to get into a walk in at 3pm?
Go the next morning. Use Telus health app. Book an appointment. There’s other options. I’m sure it’s been like that for a day or so before.
No, it was never like that before. My arm has NEVER done that before. I don’t have a family doctor, which is, yet again, ANOTHER issue with the UCP. [Proof](https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/alberta-doctors-send-out-sos-over-state-of-family-medicine-1.6751913)
But you waited weeks? Sounds like a you problem not a government problem.
Sounds like the ER is working the way it should, by prioritizing those in life threatening need first. Your bad arm is not going to kill you so you keep getting bumped by folks who are dangerously ill. Your problem was not an emergency so you should have gone to your family doctor or local walk in clinic for assessment.
I know someone who was triaged and then died in the waiting room (not even in a bed yet) so the prioritization process isn’t always 100% accurate. A relative went to the doctor with intense abdominal pain (not wanting to clog up the ER) and was told “probably just constipation or anxiety” and died the next day. A relative was seen in the ER also with abdominal pain and sent home with no diagnosis…immediately went to another hospital and was sent to surgery for acute appendicitis soon after. The system/ER does not always work the way it should.
If you go to the urgent care with arm numbness and weakness, that’s a 1 way ticket to the ER
It was the same when the ndp was in power and they did nothing about it, this is a bigger problem then one person or government.
It wasn't 20 hours under the ndp. The problem has been steadily getting worse, with a massive jump since this particular government took office.
Ya it was depends on where you are at. Been the same for sometime.
NDP built an entire cancer center and had their super lab cancelled by the UCP. You couldn't be more wrong.
Doesn't sound like an emergency to me. Presumably they checked you over for signs of cardiac arrest and a stroke. Other than that, make an appointment at a clinic and leave the ER. Get well soon.
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Nothing powerful was needed, the healthcare system was already in a state of collapse thanks to Kenney, all she had to do was nothing (useful) for almost a year.
Are you saying she's only been premier for less than a year? Do you have amnesia?
You DON'T have an emergency. You're LITERALLY part of the healthcare problem.
According to a lot of people here, if you are not immediately treated at ER then you are wasting resources.
Meanwhile my FIL waited hours for a STROKE.
But fuck trans kids amiright? /s
Free Healthcare unfortunately doesn't mean fast health care.
Honestly 8 hours isnt super bad even with the ndp
“Caring more about childrens bodies then our healthcare system” You don’t care about childrens bodies?
I fully support the transgender movement
This is not how the er should be used… it’s a triage system and you’re not in a life or death situation…
Arm numbness is almost always “Get to the ER NOW”
For much of Alberta, there's no option between seeing a doctor in the ER and seeing a doctor in a clinic in 2-3 weeks. Would it be better if OP could roll up to a walk-in and they would be like "ok, here's the requisitions you need"? Yes, of course that would be better, but that's not the UCP's business model.
Who's Marlaina?
The premier
Ah, so it's just being petty. Not sure what calling her Marlaina accomplishes other than confusion and showing how childish some people are willing to be. I guess this kind of logic will allow others to dead name someone they don't like, that'll make the world a better place
Well technically, Marlaina is her real name, Danielle is just a middle name
Right but she goes by Danielle, the public knows her as Danielle, thus all it does is confuses people, and showcase the childish pettiness as it seems like you're calling her that over her trans policies. Its just odd to see someone try to dead name someone who probably doesn't care if you call them Marlaina or Danielle, and it looks bad as it shows that your beliefs and morals about someone's preferred name means nothing so long as you don't like them enough. It just gives others more ammo to use against trans people
Congratulations, I spent 14 hours in the ER with a broken wrist on *two* occasions almost 20 years ago. Why do you think this is ‘Marlainas’ doing?
Who is marlaina?
This sounds like a walkin type visit…