When is reputation more important than health?
By Letter to the Editor on February 17, 2021.
Editor:
It was disconcerting to see a letter in The Herald from Darren Sandbeck, Senior Provincial Director and Chief Paramedic with Alberta Health Services, in which he admitted not knowing about any of the recent cases of EMS service problems being recounted by mayors and fire chiefs in Alberta.
How the many specific cases, where problems in dispatch led to increased wait times, possibly worse health outcomes, and certainly longer periods of pain and trauma, listed by our civic leaders failed to come to the attention of Alberta Health Services’ management indicates either a complete breakdown in communications or utter disregard for the voices of the people they serve.
The mayors and fire chiefs assure us they have repeatedly shared their concerns with Alberta Health and the government.
Mr. Sandbeck’s ignorance of any “adverse events, response delays or negative outcomes” really beggars belief.
His plea for keeping all such discussions behind closed doors is perhaps the most telling part of his letter.
When did the organization’s reputation become more important than peoples’ health at AHS?
Are we really at the point where PR pre-empts the ER?
Cities have offered to fund local dispatch themselves. The UCP have turned down that chance to provide better emergency service to Albertans. In fact, they will even fight such offers in court.
I for one appreciate the stand our municipal leaders are taking to fight for the best outcomes possible for people who are facing health emergencies.
I know many others feel the same way.
Tom Moffatt
Lethbridge
-1
The salient question to ask now. “Is the UCP bundling all of the EMS service in Alberta to offer, as a package, to a private contractor?” It seems to be a trend of the UCP to put Alberta on the auction block to the highest bidder, to the point that they will not participate in a financial oversight committee. In fact they attended and used parliamentary procedure to adjourn the meeting before the agenda was presented.
I think you have nailed it. We hear they are planning to privatize our Land Titles Offices also and of course running out the RCMP is all about privatization and dumping the 30% Ottawa pays us for their services onto the backs of Albertans , like Klein did with the power industry. Our property taxes will skyrocket.
After slashing $9 billion off our taxes to benefit his rich friends he has to find the money to replace it somewhere, so why not cut 11,000 health jobs and put people’s lives at risk and make the stupid people pay 100% for their policing. That’s how these Reformers think. He also has to recover the $1.5 billion he blew on the Keystone XL pipeline and wants us to pay that also..
I’m sure you have seen the adds. This bonehead Erin O’Toole another Preston Manning, Stephen Harper trained Reformer wants to begin where Stephen Harper left off destroying the CBC and cutting $36 billion off our Public Health Care fees to force us into a privatized health care system.
Of course guys like buckwheat aren’t smart enough to understand it.
What beggars belief is the amount of woulda shoulda coulda being spewed by municipal “leaders”. They provide no detailed accounts, specific facts or confirmed issues. Generalizations create fear and it looks like you took the bait.