What are municipalities doing to solve the health crisis?

By Lethbridge Herald on June 8, 2023.

Editor:

 During what is a health care crisis we hear plenty from provincial and federal governments on possible solutions from ever more funding to specialized clinical approaches.

The noise is endless and the improvements are illusive.  

Despite that municipalities continue to grant permission for expansion projects that weigh heavily on the demand side of the equation.  What we haven’t heard or seen is what municipalities are doing to help alleviate the supply side of the health care equation.  Surely when we plan great expansion projects with subdivisions and condos springing up endlessly somebody has to be giving thought to the planning of health care provision.

 We seem to plan for everything else. What is the sense of providing housing on a mass level and not considering how we can deliver health care? 

It is an endless and growing strain on hospitals, doctors, clinics and related services. Maybe it’s time for municipalities to accept some responsibility for the mess we are in. 

Or, maybe it’s time for municipalities to do a better job at telling us what they are doing to help alleviate the problem.

What is becoming clearer is that they hold a degree of fault for the health care problems related to  poor urban planning.  You can’t keep squeezing people into an area and not have a plan for how you will service their health care needs. It is irresponsible.  

Peter Burns

Lethbridge