Quote:
Originally Posted by Locke
And this sort of goes back to something that Slava touched upon previously and that I've sort of been on about as well.
These issues are not solved with dollars.
These types of systems and processes are endemic in AHS. Believe it or not, AHS is not an underfunded entity, they are given lots and lots of budget, but they dont use it very effectively and to cure most of AHS' ills, just more money isnt going to do it, not on its own. AHS needs serious budgetary and operational reform.
I do however think an element that some people may miss or gloss over is that we do need to pile in a ton of money up-front to keep the thing running while we perform those reforms.
If someone told me that the will and the structure were in place to turn AHS into something better...read: NOT necessarily CHEAPER but BETTER
I would be more than okay with a huge infusion of Tax Dollars for that.
Those are Tax Dollars that are actually benefitting people as long as they're not being swallowed up by AHS middle-management bloat.
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There's always ways to do things better, but Alberta typically is the lowest or near the lowest in terms of administration spending for healthcare of all provinces. That will increase with Smith wanting to fire everyone and paying out severance. Alberta is spending just below the national average per person on healthcare this year.
A lot of this starts at the bottom. Making sure everyone has fairly quick easy access to family medicine. This is where you save money. You catch things earlier, and treatments are less intensive, people aren't avoiding going to the doctor because it's a long wait or a hassle, and showing up in the hospital sicker, or needing a specialist. This also applies to cutting services, coverage etc.
Does anyone think that Cochrane, Pincher Creek, or Sundre losing most of their family doctors is going to speed things up? It's going to create far more problems than just family doctor access, it's a ripple effect, specialists, hospital beds, etc all end up affected.
That's the first step.
Then you go from there.