You can thank Ralph Klein for this problem. He left Calgary out to dry when he cut back health care in the 90s.
Take a good long look at this:
Population of Calgary's Greater Metropolitan Area: 1,162,100
Population of Edmonton's Greater Metropolitan Area: 1,081,300
Anyone see a problem with this?
The Bow Valley General Hospital had 700 beds. It was roughly the size of the Foothills Medical Centre. They blew it up. The fact that no one stopped them is amazing to me. Did they just figure that our population would decrease?
Even if they needed to save money they could have closed the hospital, and kept the building intact, they could re-open it and use it as a full-scale, already constructed hospital, now that we need it...
but they turned it into condos.
Many of the people my age who were born in Calgary were born in the Holy Cross Hospital which, as far as I can recall, was sold for paltry sum. Now the Calgary Health Region LEASES SPACE THERE! It is just ridiculous. The mismanagement that has occurred in the health care system under this government (I am not convinced that Special Ed is any different than Klein) is just atrocious and I am so depressed every time Albertans turn a blind eye to this and vote them in again.
I am sorry for ranting but being part of the Calgary Health Region, I have unique perspective... we are understaffed, overworked, and the members of my union (AUPE) are underpaid. We have no available beds in the city to speak of and every year it gets worse. Our ONLY saving grace is the new South Campus hospital but it is not opening for 3 years and at that point it will only have 260 beds. It will take 10 years before it is completed and up to its capacity of ~700 beds.
Hack&Lube, I am very sorry for your grandmother's terrible experience. I can only assure you that myself and my colleagues in health care do our best with what we are given. I hope her situation is resolved rapidly and she gets the treatment she needs... and I hope that someday we don't have these kind of stories to tell.