Let’s discuss private healthcare for a minute. I have a loved one waiting for joint replacement that can barely walk. Yet they are not “urgent” enough for surgery, AND the AB govt has absolutely decimated healthcare so there are no surgical spots anyway /1 #abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli
Due to pain and inability to get basic needs met, this person has looked at private costs for the replacement. The surgery only takes place in Ont (I assume it’s due to availability of OR space) so they would have to pay to travel to Toronto for the consult. /2 #abpoli #cdnpoli
So on top of having to pay for travel costs, the consult is $750. The CONSULT. To see if they are a candidate for surgery. The surgery itself out of pocket is $30K. PLUS you have to travel back for reassessment 2 weeks post surgery or stay in Ont /3 #abpoli #cdnpoli
And pay for accommodations and those costs. When all is said and done, it’s likely $35K out of pocket. I see many people in favor of privatization but how many Canadians can actually pay for that themselves? AB health won’t cover anything because it’s “elective” /4 #cdnpoli
And the cost for the surgery is on top of the private costs for MRI which they had to pay for to show the deterioration of the joint. We need to actually spend and build the public system to help all Canadians. It shouldn’t be a tiered health system. /5 #abpoli #cdnpoli
Each of the politicians has their idea for healthcare but have any actually tried to spend MORE on the system to fix the gutting that provincial govts have done? Because I don’t know about you, but I could never afford a $35K bill for essential, life saving treatment. #cdnpoli

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More from @KatuniaOB

10 Sep
Dear Urban HCWs,

As people get sicker with delta, and rural sites are forced to perform procedures that are just at the tip of our capabilities, please be kind if you see what looks to you like shoddy workmanship from a rural site. 🧵/1 #NurseTwitter #AbLeg
If our chest tube dressings are not exactly how you would do them in an ICU, know that we have done our very best, and that we don't always have the newest and best supplies. We have been underfunded in that respect and are doing what we can to stabilize and send out. /2 #AbLeg
If you see in the charting that we didn't do vitals on our critical patient as they would have in a tertiary centre, know that we are typically working with one or two nurses only for some rural ER's at a time. There are simply not enough nursing hands to get to it. #AbLeg
Read 7 tweets
30 Aug
We look at each other with frustration. We’ve both been on the receiving end of anti-vax people yelling at us for asking if they have it. The phone rings and it’s yet another diversion from a bigger Centre that is being over run with Covid. /1 #AbLeg #COVID19AB #abpoli
Every dept is short on staff. Everyone is exhausted, but we plod on because we do honestly care. The news from other hospitals gets worse and worse. We are fed snippets of what other places are experiencing. We cross our fingers that no one serious comes in and needs /2 #ableg
To be transferred because there will likely not be a bed for them in any provincial ICU soon. We look to the govt for some type of leadership, ANYTHING AT ALL. Radio silence. Even the Matt’s have slunk into their Best Summer Ever holes. /3 #AbLeg #COVID19AB
Read 5 tweets
20 Aug
As I sat listening to the RN webinar with Dr. Hinshaw, I somehow was expecting even the slightest budge on mask mandates. I don’t know why I was optimistic, it ended up being soft ball question after soft ball question. There were two questions that were /1 #COVID19AB
Already widely debunked and IMO shouldn’t have been included in a medical discussion. She mentioned that mask mandates don’t work because people fight the mandate, so you have to weigh the pros and cons. It was so utterly disappointing that neither rising case /2 #COVID19AB
Numbers, the reclassification to airborne that needs to happen with delta, or anything about back to school was addressed in any fashion. It was an absolute waste of time. She stressed vaccines, but there were no strategies to deal with low vax uptake in the north. /3 #COVID19AB
Read 4 tweets
16 Aug
I remember when I started nursing, I went in it thinking it was going to be great; a lifetime career in AB. We had some older nurses who survived the 1988 strike and what I didn’t understand was there was an entire generation laid off during /1 #IStandWithABNurses #NurseTwitter
The Klein years. An ENTIRE generation of nurses lost to other provinces or countries. I didn’t fully realize the scope of it until many years into my nursing career, and many of the “experienced” crowd were starting to retire. Without that generation / 2 #IStandWithABNurses
Of nurses in between the retirees and the “newbies” (me) suddenly I became one of the “experienced” ones. It was a rough transition considering the massive gap in knowledge between those nursing for 20+ years and those for under 5 at that time. /3 #IStandWithABNurses
Read 7 tweets
16 Nov 20
A lot of people have been complaining about how AB shouldn't be "at capacity" yet. I don't know who needs to hear this, but we were at capacity BEFORE Covid. Our health service has been gutted for years. Started with Klein, continues on and on. /1 #AbLeg #abpoli #abhealth
Nursing and other support services were decimated with Klein. Hospitals were closed, no increased spending on programming was done to an effective level. Each govt after that did not spend enough money to build the system with population growth. /2 #AbLeg #abpoli #abhealth
The NDP tried to spend some money on Lab services, and a new hospital in Edmonton. It was a good start, but not nearly enough for the population increases that AB was seeing. And if you look at the rural picture, it's even bleaker. /3 #AbLeg #abpoli #abhealth
Read 9 tweets
15 Nov 20
After arguing with a family member over what a cohort is, I felt the need to rehash what a cohort should be in Covid times. Cohort means one other family. One. You should not be going out with friends to dinner. #AbLeg #abhealth #abpoli /1
You should not technically be attending religious services if we are to take this Covid second wave seriously. Cohort means ONE other family that also sees no one else but your family. Their only contact is YOUR family. That’s what makes a cohort. #AbLeg #abpoli #abhealth /2
This thing is already hectic in the hospitals and in HCWs of all kinds, with staffing, covering for isolations and trying not to get Covid yourself. Saying that your extended family is your “cohort” without them also agreeing to limit their contact with others doesn’t work. /3
Read 4 tweets

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