Dear editor,
In letters in the Edmonton Journal on March 25, Dr. Tahmeena Ali had an excellent commentary on the state of rural Alberta's Healthcare and the issue of communities having to fundraise in order buy "key equipment.” This situation is bad enough in our rich province but even when a community has done this fundraising another situation arises.
I am a member of the St. Paul & District Hospital Foundation and six months ago we approved the purchase of a replacement Cardiac Monitoring System for our St. Therese Hospital at a cost of approximately $120,000 because Alberta Health Services (AHS) would not fund it. We have the money sitting in our bank account but at this time we are still waiting for approval to purchase from AHS.
This is not an isolated incident. Last year we waited nine months to purchase a Colposcope for our Ob/Gyn. During this wait for the equipment patients were having to go to Edmonton for procedures that could have been done here.
Is the system working? I think not! In a rich province like ours I find it totally unacceptable that we have to keep fighting to have quality health care.
Gladys Boisvert, St. Paul
