Quote:
Originally Posted by Zarley
I really am scratching my head at this statement. What has improved in Alberta in the past five years? I guess I could see an argument that things have improved for public sector employees, but things have not been pretty for the rest of us:
- Healthcare benchmarks have not shown improvement despite increases in spending at AHS, and on aggregate things have gotten worse: go to page 135 of the AHS annual report to see for yourself, but here are the wait time metrics:
Change in wait time from 2014 to 2017:
Radiation Oncology +8.2%
Medical Oncology +1.8%
Coronary Artery Bypass +49%
Cataract Surgery +28.4%
Hip Replacement +27.9%
Knee Replacement +23.3%
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I can't speak to most of what you posted, I just don't have the expertise, however I do know the medical system and I am able to tell you some basic facts.
First, hospitals take a long time to build. From the funding, to the planning, to the building, to the staffing... it takes decades to open and get a new facility running at full capacity.
Second, a lot of the diseases you mentioned are diseases that predominantly impact the elderly populations... hell most diseases impact the elderly more than a younger population (shocking news I know).
Third, the elderly population in Alberta and Canada as a whole is growing.
So you have increased strains on a system, one that takes a long time to increase capacity, and you are blaming the party that has been there for four years? What did you expect them to do in order to change anything - if nothing else they have been the party that has actually gone out and started funding more hospitals and mental health facilities. I am leery of the history of the Klein years and their impact on the health care system that took a long time to recover.