Let’s talk about dwindling accessibility for healthcare in AB. For many of us in the north, the closest large Centre is Grande Prairie. It’s typically a 2-3 hour drive from the smaller communities and housed many specialists to access, up until 2019. It’s been /1 #AbLeg #abpoli Dwindling in specialists since then. From gynecologists closing practices, to opthamologists, there are more and more people saying they are now searching for a new specialist because their previous one closed shop and moved away. /2 #AbLeg #abpoli

You can practically set your watch by the Covid journey with this variant. Patient comes in, day 3 or 4. SOB. They need nasal prongs. Usually they have a fever and need to be admitted to the hospital, except there are no beds open. They sit in ERs, /1 🧵#ableg #COVID19AB Struggling to breathe. Days 5-7 bring full oxygen masks at 7L, then 10. They are breathing very fast to compensate and are pale. We switch them to an Airvo machine which gives humidified oxygen, hoping to give the body a chance to fight it off. Some get better. /2 #ableg #COVID19

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

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

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

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

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

https://twitter.com/nightshiftmd/status/1426943348116541444

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

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

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

https://twitter.com/yesssi/status/1327758094516973568

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