Long wait for lab appointment makes for an election choice
By Lethbridge Herald on May 3, 2023.
Editor:
Recently, my nurse practitioner ( I am one of about 40,000 Lethbridge citizens without a doctor) gave me a requisition for a routine blood test at one of our local medical labs. When I asked which lab I should go to, I was told here are only two in Lethbridge!
I was also given instructions on how to make that appointment. I seem to remember that many clinics used to have a lab on their premises.
You got a checkup, and a request for a sample of your blood and/or urine, then you took it to their lab and a few minutes later you were on your way home. One could also go to the Community Lab at the hospital (this was handy for me because my home is only a 15-minute drive away.) I used to phone the lab and was given an appointment often for the next day at a time suitable for me.
Then I learned that there was one lab on the southside, and one on the northside. All the other smaller (and convenient) labs were somehow closed by the AHS, and a contract was made with Dynalife to do all the lab work for Alberta!
That seems like a good monopoly for the private owners to make a pretty hefty profit, when the government pays for this.
The information sheet I was given had two numbers on it: one for Edmonton, one for Calgary, and one for the rest of Alberta.
I called the third number, and discovered it was one in Calgary. I asked for a Lethbridge clinic, and eventually someone from somewhere indicated that the soonest I could get one was 15 days away!
It seemed to me that a few hours waiting in the clinic as a walk-in would get me in sooner!
Now to my final comment, which will be to all Albertans:
We have a choice at the end of May: We can accept what we have seen thus far in the medical crisis, or we can try to get something different (and I hope something better.) Our choice is for a far-right thinking government or a centrist-thinking one. We deserve whichever we choose!
Oh! where is a Peter Lougheed when we so badly need someone like him??
E.E. BalayLethbridge
14-13
Agreed….and the UCP, incredibly believe and state that they are trying to clean up the health care mess left by the NDP. It may be delusional for the UCP to not recognize that health care issues have greatly worsened since they took power in 2019, including this lab mess and the EMS dispatch chaos….let alone alienating Alberta doctors, registered nurses and other frontline health care professionals, and underfunding health care. We are definitely at a fork in the road with voting. And, for us nerds who watch politics closely, Rachel Notley’s politics more closely resemble those of the progressive conservative Lougheed’s. Danielle Smith’s UCP are not one bit progressive conservative, and are disturbingly, in bed with their fringe, radical right wing Take Back Alberta associates.
I am not a fan of the UCP with the direction they are taking, and wish to see them defeated in a few weeks time.
But, the current lab situation is not one of the reasons.
Having utilized the new Dynalife facilities , I can say the system is working well. A private company they may be, but the booking is easy to use and in an emergency, one can wait in line as in the past. Most testing , screening for example, can be accomplished in a two to three week time frame.
Consolidating the sites into two, alongside the hospital makes sense to me. ( Extra technicians should speed up appointments .)
There are many significant issues with this current Wildrose , TBA philosophy of the UCP, but the concern of the letter writer is not one of them.
We certainly have a choice, and I think Balay and myself would agree as to the desired outcome in a few weeks time.
It’s not all good though. An acquaintance of mine needed lab work done at a certain time as ordered by their doctor. This all being in Calgary. An appointment could not be arranged at the appropriate time, so ‘they’ got into line at the appropriate time and waited 3 hours. The staff was frantic and distressed. In anticipation of the long wait, ‘they’, who could do much work on their computer, brought it along and did 3 hours worth of work while waiting. If a person is able and willing to drive out of the city, some of the smaller labs in the surrounding areas are much more available.
I see the writer spouts the usual socialist tag re. the UCP , now all conservative governments are labeled ” far right” and socialists are described as ” centrists”, when, in fact the UCP are no further right than the NDP is left.
Certainly, though, as an Alberta born Albertan, I am old enough to know, that the UCP are “not like my grandpa’s days of fiscal conservatism.’ Many may not realize how right wing politics, not only in Alberta, but Canada, has changed. I would vote for Lougheed-style fiscal conservatism but not this fringe, radical right wing, Take Back Alberta-style of politics now.
What an absolutely insane claim. What socialist policies do the ANDP have? Do you even know what that word means?
https://youtu.be/CUfRwYcaL-k. A lot do however.
Okay, that’s not an answer. Let’s try something easier – tell me what policies the NDP implemented or has proposed that you consider socialism.
All of them. Central planning for one. Read their national manifest.
What is socialist to the point of sad hilarity is the proposed UCP subsidization of giving $20 billion to the oil and gas sector to clean up their well site, the $330 million to help out the billionaire owners of the Calgary Flames, creating opportunities for their private-for-profit health care corporate friends, having not kept the caps on insurance rates thus helping out their insurance corporate friends…..on and on. The UCP? More socialist than is thought.
Yes, zulu please back up your claim!
As the lawyers in our circle of friends state “They can’t, they have absolutely nothing to back any stupid comments they make. They wouldn’t stand a chance in court. The only people they are fooling are themselves.
I did it instead.
Completely agree.
well stated
Once again we see the ignorant response from a Reform Party supporter zulu1, who apparently can’t tell the difference between a true conservative and a Reformer, finding it smart to call anyone who isn’t as dumb as him a socialist, like they are all so famous for doing. Ignorant seniors showing how stupid they are. Where is the intelligence in that?
While singer Corb Lund shows his concern for these idiots putting our water supply at risk, with coal mining, just like our hero Peter Lougheed, this fools attack him and prove they aren’t smart enough to show any concern for our children and grandchildren.