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Originally Posted by ken0042
That makes no sense to me. You are telling me it costs less to have each and every patient add some sort of ambulance bill to their heath care tab?
If the patient is seen in a small town or a major city; there will still be certain fixed costs; like salaries, medicines, consumables, etc. But if an ambulace bill within Calgary, I can't see a ground ambulance from Barrhead to Edmonton being less than $1000, and I'm not sure what STARS costs, but let's say it's $5000 per trip. (Making these numbers up, so bear with me.)
If that hospital treats 2 people per day that would need to be moved, and another 2 emergencies per week that require STARS, that is $100,000 per month in ambulance costs. I cannot see a small hospital costing that much to operate. Keep in mind we aren't talking Rockyview size of hospital; most small town hospitals are smaller than the doctors offices that you and I visit.
Never mind the PITA factor for anybody needing basic care like a broken arm. Also, where would the call be made from? Does the average patient get to decide if he needs an air ambulance? Or would you need some sort of triage centre.
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No town under 8000 people need a hospital. The most they need is a clinic with a handful of doctors and nurses to deal with the minor stuff. Anything else should be handled by air ambulance. You could essentially replace all these hospitals and probably more with 1 or 2 helicopters on a stand by basis. Which means you replace probably over 100 unionized employees with 4-8 private contractors that dont constantly bitch about salary and which dont go on strike every 4 years and hold this province hostage when they do it. In a perfect world those clinics would be privately operated and charge back there services to the province (to stay in line with the Canada Health Act) there my maximizing resources.
A full time nurses salary is 70k+/year include OT and you get over 100K with 200K+ for a doctor. The cost of a bed in this provice a few years ago was slated at 30k / month. Its probably upwards of 50k+. The salary costs dont include the pension that comes with those jobs.
There is no way that the capital outlay costs for 2 helipcopters + pilots is more than what it would cost to run those hospitalzs for 2-3 years max. If you want to reduce your upfront costs you lease the helicopters. You could further reduce it by bludozing these hospitals and selling the realestate back to the towns. Most of these hospitals are likely in choice locations now which could eventually be sold for a slight profit.
Living in rural alberta has its benefits and its downfalls. The benefits being you dont have to deal with noise/traffic - the downfalls being you shouldnt have a hospital. The taxation income from those citizens for sure dont cover the cost of operating these hospitals.