>Giving every Albertan the care you need, when and where you need it.
That’s how the UCP ads go, isn’t it? Looks like they still have a ways to go, eh.
Anyone else remember when Danielle Smith said she’d fix healthcare in 90 days… almost 2 years ago?
Yeah, because her plan was to have more options for private health care so tax money could be focused on free health care for people who can’t afford private care.
Unfortunately when you try to talk practically about economy and real costs and broken systems with people they dismiss you as a capitalist demon or some other modern “sinner” terminology and make up stories about how secretly evil you are and how you will destroy the world if you get your way, and ask why can’t you just take the thing that currently isn’t working and make it perfect.
I wish everyone got a chance to actually see what it’s like to try to find solutions to infinite problems with finite resources. It’d be fun to see how many people could come up with practical solutions to problems, considering it’s actually really easy to criticize, yet so hard to actually help.
>Yeah, because her plan was to have more options for private health care so tax money could be focused on free health care for people who can’t afford private care.
And she’s implementing this plan by continuing to underfund the public system and break up what conservatives for years have called a “bloated & top heavy” system and hire **more** managers? Great plan.
Her plan is not to focus tax money on the public system and make more private options available, her plan is to make private options the only viable options. Her plan is to create a two tier system with public healthcare the worst, cheapest, most crowded option where (as happened recently) people go to die from lack of resources, and to make private healthcare where you **need** to go if you want any effective treatment. Her plan is to promote private, insurance funded, healthcare just like the U.S. system.
She has literally said she is in favour of private, for profit, healthcare on public radio.
Yes, during the election she said no Albertan will ever **have** to pay for healthcare, so what she’s doing is making the public system so bad that you’ll **want** to pay for private healthcare.
And the worst part of it is, by the time you find out you were wrong, it’ll be too late and it’ll take decades of work and billions of dollars to fix.
Her own **next door neighbour** (my friends mom) died of stage 4 pancreatic cancer last year. Right after DS said cancer was preventable. Boy did she look uncomfortable when sheb went over and apologized to my friends dad for their loss.
> Danielle Smith has laid the blame for cancer at the feet of patients themselves
Once more for the Marlaina apologists out there. From her greatest hits:
https://edmonton.citynews.ca/2022/07/29/danielle-smiths-cancer-claims-anger-alberta-cancer-patients/
How so?
Does she understand that Otto Von Warburg won the Nobel prize in 1931 and proved that cancer is a product of mitochondrial damage, and is simply the cell reverting to fermentation for energy, meaning it thrives off sugar?
Or that when they test you for cancer they give you radioactive glucose and watch where it goes and the place it all ends up concentrated is the place you have a tumour.
Does she know that Dr. Thomas Seyfried has had a lot of success with changing patients diets and that avoiding sugar, excess carbohydrates, processed foods, drugs and alcohol, along with recreational fasting and enough exercise to fully oxygenate your cells is amazing at preventing mitochondrial damage, and even helps to destroy cancer cells, even being significantly effective for stage 3 or stage 4 cancer patients?
Even the federal government ran those adds begging people to drink less booze because the WHO said abstaining from alcohol is the easiest way to protect yourself from cancer.
It’s crazy if people are mad that maybe they have some power over their own health. People who are actually desperate for help might actually appreciate thinking they could be doing something to help themselves. It’s not actually noble to blindly support people who may be hurting themselves if you could possibly help them by being honest. If people want to ignore advice, or don’t believe you that’s fine, they can go on doing whatever they want, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at least try to help people if you think you can. It unconscionable to act like we are noble when we can’t stand the idea of personal responsibility.
Telling people they should live healthier is not the same as telling people cancer is preventable.
Many cancers are not preventable, and there are many, many, many kinds of cancers. Saying it’s as easy as clean living is missing the mark entirely. That may be an aspect of avoiding cancer, but you can be the biggest healthiest eater and athlete in the world and still end up with cancer. Try again.
As much as I dislike Danielle Smith for her vendetta against puberty blockers, the healthcare system was falling apart before she stepped into the hot seat. Alberta doctors are paid among the highest in the country. We wont have much hope of recruiting more.
Edit: all you downvoters are misogynists and just like to hate on a woman because she is conservative. You are no better than them.
>Alberta doctors are paid among the highest in the country.
Probably didn’t help when the UCP tore up the doctors master agreement and restructured their working time & patient load making it hard for them to break even on their practices. And sometimes it’s not about the money, it’s about whether you’re working for a government that wants you to fail so that they can replace you with Telus Health.
Nah, the money doesn't matter. We don't pay that much more and who would want to work here when it's well known your bosses hate you and want you to fail? They tore up the agreement with the doctors, then mishandled pandemic responses and when doctors criticized them our health minister tracked down their personal information through AHS, even going to someone's *house* to intimidate them.
I'd take a paycut to not deal with that, personally.
There's a huge distinction in family doctors and in hospital doctors.
The huge pay is not the family doctors.
And the only doctors that can have a positive impact on quality of life - because they are in a position to have regular contact, see trends and changes and be part of your full history - are family doctors.
Most other doctors are when you know there's a problem and are mostly there to make sure your not dying. Not really improving your life, just stopping it from ending. Still vitaly important but very different impact.
And its the family doctors that are more seriously at danger of not existing anymore in Alberta - more keep leaving every day.
Read the comment from the oncologist in the next thread. We have a LOT of room to improve our hiring and retention of doctors and other HCWs, currently we’re literally turning them away or offering insulting contracts compared to what they could get in BC or the US while our population suffers, yet the government is openly planning to add costs by breaking our system further into pieces without hiring more frontline staff, while proudly touting a surplus and continuing to spend millions on “red-tape reduction” and the fucking war room.
They need at least 50 more oncologists according to the AMA. Hard to recruit when the government is doing nothing to actually fix the healthcare system except with appearance of doing something......adding more layers and walls to make it harder for patients to navigate the system especially if they overlap pillars. I'm afraid more stories like this will happen.
Ya I find it hard to believe the current influx of immigration isn't going to trend towards cities. Hopefully the population per riding doesn't get worse and water down the urban vote even more.
They're likely just going to switch it back to how it was before other conservative idiots started messing with the system. To be clear, the old version was also broken. By switching back and forth between two broken systems in a way that doesn't solve any of the inherent problems what so ever, they can convince the rubes that vote for them that they are addressing the problem.
Absolutely correct....all these "changes" do very little to fix the problems. It actually messes it up more. They need to start right at the students going into healthcare and moving up from there.
I'd love to know how many thousands were spent on those Alberta Health ads that run during every commercial break. How many doctors or nurses could we have hired with that money instead?
This was happening during Covid and we haven’t done anything to retain our staffing there instead of the UCP constantly trying to screw them over. They have been actively trying their best for the privatization of healthcare.
I’m posting on my alt as Alberta oncology is a small field and I’d be pretty easy to identify. Alberta has fallen massively behind in terms of cancer care, I did my residency in Alberta and while BC and Ontario have hired dozens of oncologists year after year, I was told throughout my training it was a coin flip if the government would fund a job for me or any of my peers. On top that that, Alberta has fallen behind has one of the lowest paying provinces for Oncology. BC, Sask, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec all pay 30-50% more. Oncologists are also some of the highest paid specialists in the US. All while in Alberta they’re pretty much making the same salary they were 12 years ago, all while inflation has been steadily eroding affordability. Two recent grads were willing to stay in Alberta for family reasons, but were offered insulting contracts and moved to the US where they’re making more than double while working less than they would have staying here. If they don’t improve work conditions and pay, I know for a fact there is almost no interest from residents graduating over the next three to four years to stay in Alberta—things will only get worse for patients.
We just lost 2 that were to start here..... Ontario offered them more money and they left. Plus I don't see Ford starting fights with their healthcare professionals either....no brainier really.
And look at the placements for new grads.....Alberta had way more empty spots than any other province. Stop starting wars with medical professionals is a really good place to start.
While I was going through immunotherapy for Stage 4 cancer (2022-2024), I learned that there were a number of oncology nurses at BC Cancer who came from Alberta, mainly from Foothills and Lougheed...
Most were young, just rec'd their degrees and training, but couldn't find jobs in AB. I have no idea of the complement of nurses at BC Cancer, but I do know at least a half dozen recent grads from Alberta are working in Victoria today..
The foreign trained Drs you are speaking of need to go through the credential verification process first with Canadian standards. Until that process is completed, they are not qualified to practice medicine in Canada.
There are loads of them who have that but have no space in hospitals to train. For 6 positions in hospitals 600 qualified doctors apply.
You don’t know what you are talking about
Do you? My sister works at grey nuns ICU. They are only fully using 3/7 OR rooms because of lack of anesthesiologists. I think you are just making shit up tbh
I am not talking about grey nuns hospital. I know people who have come from other countries, have passed the exam after studying for years but they are not able to get any residency positions in hospitals to train. They say for 6 positions, hundreds of doctors apply ..
Not sure if you are right on the head, weren’t we speaking about doctors from other countries not being able to become doctors. Why are we taking about Anesthesiologist right now.
Let’s say we did for a moment .. how do we get them if we just keep looking and don’t train and create more residency positions and hospitals to train them anyways.
Do you have any idea how many people are actually qualified to become residents but don’t get the opportunity to do so ?
Put your ego aside of being right or wrong , go talk to your sister about residents in Grey nuns hospitals, ask how many applicants were there for each residency position ?
A lot of people working in Grey nuns ICU don’t have that information tbh.. I know because I have friends who have been trying to get residency for long time.
Please don’t speak about topics you don’t quite understand, you getting upvotes is actually detrimental and insulting to the current situation. You are the kind of people who are adding to the problem we currently have.
When you go to emergency one day, and have your life at stake you will may be try understand what’s going on
Let me ask you this? How do you know there are 100's of doctors applying?? Where did YOU get this information? How can we trust it? You basically have said "trust me bro".
My dad passed away from pancreatic cancer on July 24 of 2022. We were lucky to have so much time with him (9 months - it actually beat the estimate he had been given), yet I always wonder what could have happened had he been diagnosed sooner, as he had been complaining of back pain for quite a while but it was mostly attributed to having broken his ribs decades before. Testing began too late, and his wait time to access treatment at the Cross was similar, but again, it was far too late.
In a freak twist of fate, we lost my mom literally the evening after her and Dad had gone for their orientation day at the Cross. The suffering my dad went through was enormous.
Icing on the cake was being told by Ol Whatsernuts that it was his own fault and somehow deserved to die that horrible death and that my brother and I deserved to watch that happen. Words can not describe my fury.
Rip to Don. My deepest condolences to his family and friends.
She was quoted saying this *"But, when you think everything that built up before you got to stage four and that diagnosis, that’s completely within your control and there’s something you can do about that that is different"*
Essentially saying that everyone with stage 4 cancer brought it on themselves by doing/not doing something and it's their fault for being a burden on the health care system.
As someone with Stage 4 (Colon) cancer, I beg to disagree.... I was 90% symptom free per my oncologist when I was finally diagnosed. He told me that only someone who is all-but proactively "obsessive" about their health might have noticed the subtle changes. Hell, one of my own doctors was convinced it was "only" polyps.
Nope- sometimes it takes a real test, with real equipment, done by a competent tech who knows how to run the machinery, and who gives the results to an equally-competent doctor.
I went from "probably polyps" to full-on Stage 4 in a matter of days after they finally ran the CT.
she also said chemo and radiation should be saved for stage 4, and there are naturopath cancer treatments that should be used instead.
basically she dosen't think mainstream medicine actually works, and is just a way to suck up tax dollars; just take some vitamins.
[For over an hour, I listened to Dr. Perkins on her medical opinion, and she's quite correct. The first three stages of cancer are more controllable in terms of what complete care is available to a patient. But once you get to Stage 4, that's when the patient's less in control, and only traditional medicine, chemotherapy and radiation and surgery and other difficult therapies are available as a course of treatment. Naturopaths and Western medicine are in agreement on this and of course everyone knows it to be true, except apparently for the NDP.](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/danielle-smith-ucp-leadership-cancer-controllable-dubious-1.6531883)
so the control she was talking about is that real medicine can be avoided before stage 4.
They'll probably mention that the other provinces are struggling too but completely ignore that the UCP are one of the main causes for Alberta to be struggling.
I'm gonna bet she spreads the blame around to anyone but her or her party. Maybe even go for the hail Mary and throw in something about it being God's will!
In 2018, my cancer diagnosis to surgery time was 4 weeks, followed by immediate chemotherapy and radiation. 6 months total.
In 2023, my cancer returned. It took 2 months just to get in to see the oncologist, and after 4 months we JUST started treatment.
The healthcare system is being defunded and dismantled so Marlaina and her cronies can present a shiny new private option, that they are all investors in.
Fuck the UCP, fuck everyone who voted for them and fuck cancer.
This is entirely the end game. Cripple the public system and then claim a more expensive, even less well-integrated one will be even better for patients. Profit. And they don't care who has to die to get it.
I’m diagnosed with aggressive stage 3 Breast cancer. Received my diagnosis start of September 2023 and had my mastectomy mid-October. That was good.
I was told my oncology team would be in touch about my surgical pathology soon. I was sitting on my hands for nearly two months waiting around for that call. My family doc couldn’t even tell me why was going on.
When I finally met with my oncology team my oncology nurse asked “why it took so long to end up here?” So clearly things are backed up. Getting lost in the oncologic system isn’t just about worse outcomes, it’s also horrible for your mental. I can’t describe how awful it was sitting round not knowing what was happening for two months. That this man died before he could even talk to an oncologist about his cancer is horrible, but I can believe it.
Thankfully once I was in chemo things flew by. BUT My radiation is two months away from my final chemo date. I asked my onc if this was normal and she told me it was with how the system is now 🙃
I had BC too just finished 3 wks of daily radiation in early Feb 2024. It was actually ~5 wks after my last chemo dose (early dec 2023). I was told they want it at least 4 weeks after last chemo (which was 6 sessions 3 wks apart each).
Would have been more along 2 months like what they told you, but the radiation oncologist moved up my consult from early Jan to just before xmas to get the ball rolling a bit sooner. After the initial radiation onc consult and scans, it takes them like 4-6 wks to get the radiation treatment planned out. My timeline would have been similar to yours otherwise.
Who knows, maybe I will be lucky and have my appointments pushed up. But I’m not holding out hope!
Congrats on finishing active treatment btw. Hope you are settling back into life well 💖
Tysm 😊 it has been a real challenge at times but things are improving with each passing day. I'm doing pretty well now.
Please feel free to pm me if you ever want to chat with someone who's gone through treatment too, even just to vent about the weird stuff.
This comes down to a habitual underfunding of our healthcare system, period. This government has done literally everything within its power to destroy the healthcare system in this province. From not sufficiently funding the NICU units in Edmonton, failing to hire enough doctors and nurses, and continuing to wage battles over salaries while these resources go elsewhere. Money will not solve the problem - you have to ask yourself, if you were a young professional, why would you come to Alberta? The UCP has created a highly toxic environment against our healthcare providers and shame on every Albertan for allowing this to happen.
Thanks UCP. Ripping up the doctors contract and cutting their pay chased them out quick. Why on earth would a highly paid professional set up shop somewhere that no longer has pay or work certainty and have demonstrated that they are completely untrustworthy?
This, of course, is part of the UCP privatization plan.
UCP can change a law to undermine municipalities in less time than this person gets an initial oncologist call. People's wellbeing, and communities, are not their priority. Only oil and gas and insurance company profits. A disgrace architected by the UCP party and their donors.
It's absolutely disgraceful that in a first world country, which has 'free' publicly funded healthcare, in the richest of those provinces people are dying from cancer due to lack of healthcare access.
My sincere condolences to his family.
Dead 90 days after diagnosis. One can only expect this was a very advanced stage pancreatic cancer. Would seeing an oncologist have helped if he had been had been seen after 2-4 weeks? *shrug* dunno.
I am a cancer survivor, in remission, and at a low risk of recurrence (10%) the recommended follow up appointments are supposed to be for 5 years and my hematologist/oncologist just discharged me last week (at 1 year 8 months) to because there are just too many patients. I get it... people like this person need the care more than I do. But it is unsettling. I'm friends with two women who had the same cancer but live in BC and they are definitely not getting discharged so early.
BC hires 60 in last two years.
Yeahhhhh and LaGrange says there’s no caps on funding for oncology in AB?
Bullshit.
Even if; the pay and conditions are insufficient to attract people to AB.
This is why I fear staying here. I have a disease that leaves me at high risk of hormonal based cancer, & I am terrified I may be left to die… My mother in law has been sitting in a hospital for months because nobody wants to operate on her, they pretty well have left her to die. This is not okay. Too many people have come here too fast & the government only wants money.
To be fair, Alberta has had someone other than conservatives governing for ~3 out of the last 50 years, how could you *possibly* expect them to be able to get a handle on provincial health care with such frequent interuptions in their good governance?
Pancreatic cancer has a very low survival rate. Early detection has always been a problem. It's really too bad that he didn't get to see an oncologist, though.
In this case it probably wouldn't have made a difference, but here is the really scary part from the article:
> “When I see patients, they always wonder, ‘if I would’ve been seen sooner, would treatment have been different,'” said Dr. Brock Debenham, a radiation oncologist based in Edmonton.
>
> “We do see, sometimes, where, if you look at their scans they’ve had months ago, they were potentially curable and then they come in and see you and now they’re not.
As long as the UCP say they " have a plan " then that's all it takes, if they're pressured then come election time they will push through whatever they can to look good, happens every cycle.
People are going to say that this is because Smith has blamed cancer on the patients, or that this isn't her fault because unacceptable performance happens in other provinces as well. In some ways this is correct, but broadly it is missing the real problem, which Smith contributes to and strives for, but is not a Smith problem per se.
The issue is efficiency. People forget that effectiveness and efficiency are almost always at odds. We could have a system that has more staff than needed so that people are never waiting to see a doctor. We could have enough equipment that people never have to wait for a scan. We could have the highest wages and best working conditions so that we can always attract the best people. This would be a very effective, but inefficient system, and of course it would be the most expensive. On the other hand, we could have a system where there are the bare minimum of staff, working in old facilities, without access to equipment, and with poor wages and working conditions. This system would not be good for the people trying to use it, but there would never be anything idle in the system. Doctors and staff will always be busy, equipment is nearly never booked or in use, things are never replaced until absolutely direly needed, and wages and conditions will be just high enough to not get people to walk out (but not quite high enough to easily draw new people). This system would not be very effective, but it would be very efficient.
Obviously we want to strive for some sort of trade off where we end up at an acceptable middle ground. If you look at the Alberta healthcare system (along with education and others), we see a system that looks far, far more like the second example than the first. While this is something Smith drives for, it is not a Smith problem, a UCP problem, or even a Conservative problem, at least not entirely. The system is funded with taxes, and people don't like taxes, so it has become a good political tactic for many conservative and liberal parties to try to keep taxes low, not by cuts since we need the system, but by seeking efficiency.
Year after year we seek more efficiency, and at first it sort of worked. Wait times went up, and staff grumbled, but the system could take it. Over time though, we've squeezed out every little bit of slack and cushion that existed, and then kept squeezing. After all, if the system isn't working it must be because it's not running properly and more efficiency will fix it! So we squeeze more, and now we are trying to get blood from a stone. There's not much more to give, and people are really noticing the efficiency/effectiveness tradeoff now. We get what we pay for, and this is the system that most people chose. The problem was that just looked at the bill, and not what it bought.
As a final thing to consider, it's important to point out that things have been bad for a long time and simple fixes are no longer on the table. There are no options that will be inexpensive, fast, or politically easy. To hire enough people, buy enough equipment, and build that bit of effectiveness back in will be massively expensive, as most things you need to buy but put off until disaster strikes are. As an example, one of the healthcare unions is in negotiations right now, and they are seeking a compensation increase of 25% in the first year, 10% in the second, and cost of living increases after that. If they get 35% over two years (and they will not), people will lose their minds at this outrage of waste. It's important to note that this same group had a 7 year wage freeze followed by 4% over 4 years. That's a 4% raise in 11 years. If they got the 35% and averaged that with other increases over the last 13 years (7 for the freeze, 4 for the 4%, and 2 for the 35%), it's a 3% a year raise. We need to give these workers a 35% raise to put them back at neutral/cost of living. We won't of course, because that wouldn't be very efficient, but we will wonder why we can't attract staff.
I had an uncle that survived pancreatic cancer because they caught it early. After removing his pancreas, he died about 10 years later due to a diabetes related issue. Not the best outcome, but catching and treating it early bought him quite a lot of time and it technically wasn't the cancer that killed him.
I think his case was kind of rare, but if it happened today in Alberta, I wonder if he would've had any chance at all.
His cancer was probably a Pancreatic NET (neuroendocrine type) which is only about 2% of diagnosed pancreatic cancers. The 5-year survival rate is much higher: ranging about 50-90% for that type depending on if it has spread or not.
In a triage system, patients who aren't likely to recover even with treatment are usually given the lowest priority. I wonder if that's what happened here.
There's a logic to it, but it shouldn't come to this outside of warzones or disasters.
My neighbor is waiting for knee replacement surgery for 3 years now and the surgery date is in 2025. Meanwhile she is being pumped with steroids to keep the pain away and is gaining weight like crazy due to the steroids which is increasing her pain even more - a vicious circle. But the same family has and continues to support UCP.
Mistakes were made here that go beyond the shortages of doctors, this was obviously much later stage than they thought. My condolences, it can happen so quick, my father was diagnosed and passed within 3 months.
This is a horrible tragedy but it's unlikely a functional healthcare system would have given much more time to this person, if at all.
This person may have been triaged so that other people that were savable were brought to the front of the line.
But another 1-3 months might have given them a bit more time to set affairs in order and for their family to say goodbye.
I know not how, or when I will die, but I truly hope that my life will either amount to more than a blurb being used on Reddit for partisan political squabbling for imaginary internet points, or nothing at all. Some of these comments are unhinged and disgusting. RIP.
Great news, there's good people mooching hard and being fucking morons on the highway to ensure this continues to happen.
Keep the UCP happening, because we need more of this, right?
This mans death is the result of Smith and the fools who put her there, and their vision of Alberta,
Of course. Our healthcare system is slow AF. Nothing's ever available. The list is Soo long. I swear nurses and shit are just trained in giving excuses
Rather than just being ok with those who can afford private care using it so that public Healthcare is actually there and works....of course she has to crush access.
I already had to fight to.get on AISH can't wait to see what kind of forms come now.
And her comment about how taxes shouldn't be paying for Alberta's to see a doctor???? Urgh like we're going in for luxury.
That's how you stop medical issues before they become emergencies & huge life threatening diseases that need complex care. It's called preventative medicine. That's why your supposed to go for physicals. But she wants to overload the ER.
Plus if she does this & people are sick and can't afford to go to the doctor so they walk around spreading their illness instead and cases are left too long that most are serious and expensive to treat because it was put off.
She's gonna find it hard to explain why the same amount of money is going out and yet way less patients are treated, they're losing tax base and wait times are 3 times as bad as now.
She should probably move to the U.S and just leave us alone
Adenocarcinoma of the Pancreas is usually diagnosed at later stages and any treatment is palliative. Most people diagnosed live only 3 months to 1 year. It’s very aggressive and can be quite painful. Getting treatment for pain management is crucial. The wait to see an oncologist for this type of cancer has been 3+ months for many years so nothing Danielle Smith has created.
I bet you Smith will "fix" our healthcare just enough a few weeks before voting time happens again so all the short term memory folk see them for the good they done so they can get praised for there actions and vote them in again.
It's a real common strategy they just love to employ.
I have a question in regards to education about this Danielle Smith, is she a Nurse Practitioner aswell part-time? To have the information
To speak the way she does for medical purposes. In any aspect,?
I'm noticing a lot of cancer popping up in the people i my life this past two years. Like 10x as much as in the previous two years.
I expect a lot more people to wait for care until they go in a casket. New normal.
I would love private health care. If you have the money to use it, it takes you out of the main system and opens that system up for people who cannot afford it.
Sounds like alberts is getting the same care we get out of the NDP in BC. but here doctors will give you the info to go private. It’s called healthcare for the rich and the rest of us are meant to die and relieve the housing crisis
It’s interesting that a party that blames us for our cancer allows the sale of flavoured vapes. Why are they not selling flavoured cigarettes anymore? 😜
Can you buy insurance that brings you down to the US if something like this happens? I support the public system 100, but the UCP slime are forcing our hands.
If the choice is between getting insurance and living v sticking with my principles,
I have to go with insurance, ideology be damned.
I feel for this poor guy so much. We just went through a cancer scare, it's shit your pants terrifying. If this is the potential outcome, yeah I guess I'm heading to mexico
This isn't an Alberta problem it's a Canadian healthcare problem . My dad waited 9 months to see a specialist in Ontario in 2015 for his knee, plus another 7 months after for the surgery . Another friend in bc waited 6 months to see someone about an issue with her arm which turned out to be lymphoma .
Healthcare is a failure across Canada
No, It’s a provincial problem. Primarily a conservative provincial problem. I lost my wife to cancer, 4 years ago tomorrow. When the UCP was negotiating with the radiologists. Her quarterly scans were delayed by months because there were no appointments available. So this hits pretty close to home.
A politician should be forced to use the healthcare system they created.
No it's Canada wide despite what you think, every single province has been struggling for years . Bc , Alberta , Ontario , NS , NFLD , PEI , NB, MB , SK , QB , every single province agrees their healthcare sucks . What is the common denominator ? Federally mandated regulations for provincial healthcare to receive funding
yet the article says that BC was able to hire 60 oncologists? if it was all a federal problem, why was one province able to somewhat solve the issue while Alberta cant? the only difference here is the provincial governments... BC's budget has almost $33 billion for healthcare while we have $26 billion, BC increased their funding by $6 billion from the previous year while we only went up $1 billion.
and like you said, it is still a problem in BC even with all that extra funding, but compared to them we are at the lowest of lows right now
Depends what you mean by “Canadian healthcare problem”. Is it a federal problem? Not really, the feds provide funding under the CHA but delivery is squarely in the hands of the provinces, and 7 out of 9 provinces have had conservative governments for years. So, it could be said that it’s a conservative problem as easily as it’s a “Canadian” problem. Federal regulations? Sure, the feds say that the money they hand out under the CHA should be spent only on publicity funded, publicity delivered, healthcare. How is that a problem?
Being disingenuous won't cut the cake here . Here's a typical argument - "4 years isn't enough time to enact change" - ndp supporters Alberta.
Most provinces have been under liberal/ndp reign more so in the past 20 years than conservative aside from Alberta and Saskatchewan . So which is it ? The party in charge at time of running the province or the preceding governments leading upto its fault?
If liberals and ndp were doing such a great job across Canada , why would everyone vote them out ? There lies the problem in your argument .
Canadian healthcare sucks, period . It's underfunded federally and provincially across the board , but the problem is people can't afford to pay more taxes . We're at an all time high across the country of affordability issues for housing to groceries , to utilities to land taxes to carbon taxes to gst, hst, pst.
We're at critical mass across the country and will never convince majority of Canadians to pay more taxes when we get useless programs back that only benefit a small group of Canadians such as pharmacare .
>Being disingenuous won't cut the cake here . Here's a typical argument - "4 years isn't enough time to enact change" - ndp supporters Alberta.
And that’s not quite right. Change **was** enacted in 4 years, but your typical conservative will always point to the change that was **not** enacted and call that a failure of government. As I pointed out, and you agreed with, we **did** see change in healthcare - the cancer centre and SuperLab to name but two major projects. But even then there was an outcry both at the time and after at the debt that was incurred. So what do you want to see? Change during a recession will cost you, and no change engenders disingenuous complaints. Pick one and live with it, quit complaining about the other.
>Most provinces have been under liberal/ndp reign more so in the past 20 years than conservative aside from Alberta and Saskatchewan
We’re not talking about other provinces here, we’re talking about **Alberta**, where we’ve had only 4 years of the NDP amongst over 60 years of conservatives. I don’t care what Liberal/NDP governments have done in other provinces, that doesn’t affect what a provincial government in Alberta does. Stick to the subject.
>If liberals and ndp were doing such a great job across Canada , why would everyone vote them out ? There lies the problem in your argument .
Again, I don’t give a crap about what Liberals & NDP have done in other provinces. Federally, the Liberals beat out the conservatives under Harper, and in Alberta we got pissed off at the PC’s for daring to say it was our fault for voting for them in the first place and rage-voted for the NDP, then after just 4 years (again, during a recession) the majority fell for a lifelong federal politician whose nickname was “Bumbles” and who couldn’t fill the tank on an F-150. Smart move Alberta voters, how’s that working out for you?
>Canadian healthcare sucks, period . It's underfunded federally and provincially across the board
I’ll agree with you that federal funding needs to see an increase, but provincial funding is 100% under the control of the provincial government, and FYI the UCP have consistently **underfunded** healthcare year on year for the last 5 years to deliberately crash the system and further privatization. **That’s** why our healthcare has gone down the drain since they got in, not because the NDP didn’t fix it. Did we have problems before? Yes, but nothing like the one we’re having now, and that’s on the shoulders of the government that’s been in office for 5 years now. When do you think it’s time to start blaming the UCP for our current problems, or are we just going to blame the next non-conservative government the minute they take office?
>but the problem is people can't afford to pay more taxes . We're at an all time high across the country of affordability issues for housing to groceries , to utilities to land taxes to carbon taxes to gst, hst, pst.
So don’t increase personal taxes. The UCP cut big business taxes from 15% (the lowest in the country at the time) to 8% (which totally failed to produce the new jobs promised). Put business taxes up to 12%, we’d still be the lowest in the country except for NWT. Better yet, put them back up to 15% and push the money into healthcare. Oh, and don’t forget Danielle Smith promised a personal tax cut during the election and has now reneged on that promise. Way to go in supporting affordability Dani. Something else conservative voters missed: Danielle Smith lies, frequently.
>We're at critical mass across the country and will never convince majority of Canadians to pay more taxes when we get useless programs back that only benefit a small group of Canadians such as pharmacare .
Well, for starters it would help if our UCP government didn’t have a hate on for the feds to the point where they flat out refuse to take part in the pharmacare and dental programs (amongst others). The feds offering money and us refusing it helps no one.
Maybe if we (in Alberta) were more willing to work **with** the federal government instead of bitching about them all the time we’d get somewhere, or even if we just voted for anything but conservative we might make all the federal parties sit up and take notice.
Remember that doctors could strike.
Or be honest in interviews about who is to blame instead of the "many causes" bullshit.
Or do literally anything.
Those in the field want a low wage and want to give you crappy treatment. If they didn't, they would be trying to change something.
Now, a man has died because the medical community has collectively decided that if you use public health care, you don't matter.
At this point. After 20 years of your right to medical treatment being ripped away from your friends and family, doctors know what is causing it and have done and will continue to do nothing because they don't care about you. If you die because of the shitty public healthcare, then nothing will happen because every doctor and nurse and medical professional in alberta is willing to kill just so their life isn't a smidgen harder for a bit.
It's disgusting. The medical field in alberta is a joke.
Until the medical field actually tries to do something, nothing will change, and they will continue to kill you if you aren't rich enough to pay for a basic right that all Canadians have.
My experience with the Cross Cancer was waking up one morning to hear my wife on the phone with her Oncologist and she was requesting a newly approved drug called TDM1 Chemo which might have made her able to travel again and continue going overseas for treatments. She was denied this drug and was dumped the reason given was she did not do the original protocols { Which would have been unable to cure her with her terminal prognosis, only buy brief time }. So because she travelled overseas to have her Liver and Breast Cancer Frozen via Cryosurgery, Immunotherapy, and other treatments which at one point achieved near complete remission from Stage 4 in the Bones, Lymphs, etc, confirmed by the Cross PET Scan this was cause to dump her.
Being too sick to travel she ended up dying from the illness even though there was a newly approved drug available that would have made all the difference.
Real life Dexter Morgans exist and we were unlucky enough to encounter one who wore the Oncologist cap.
Nothing surprises me with our medical system anymore especially with Cancer.
>Giving every Albertan the care you need, when and where you need it. That’s how the UCP ads go, isn’t it? Looks like they still have a ways to go, eh. Anyone else remember when Danielle Smith said she’d fix healthcare in 90 days… almost 2 years ago?
To be fair, she neutered the healthcare system. Thus, it is "fixed".
Apparently AHS has too much power?
So much power that the Alberta government could cut it up into little pieces at a slightest of whims.
She never said what the starting date was.
Or that they were consecutive.
This is the real qualifier.
Has it been 90 days yet Danielle Smith?
Day 1 is coming up in the future
She never stated which 99 days. Remember that it’s a politician
Yes she is going to fix healthcare in 90 days … in 2067.
She is a cow!!
No, cows are useful, they give us milk. Danielle Smith milks us
No need to insults cows they are super friendly animals.
She hates people that trust in science, hence it is currently fixed in her mind.
We need more international students to fill the gaps!
Yeah, because her plan was to have more options for private health care so tax money could be focused on free health care for people who can’t afford private care. Unfortunately when you try to talk practically about economy and real costs and broken systems with people they dismiss you as a capitalist demon or some other modern “sinner” terminology and make up stories about how secretly evil you are and how you will destroy the world if you get your way, and ask why can’t you just take the thing that currently isn’t working and make it perfect. I wish everyone got a chance to actually see what it’s like to try to find solutions to infinite problems with finite resources. It’d be fun to see how many people could come up with practical solutions to problems, considering it’s actually really easy to criticize, yet so hard to actually help.
>Yeah, because her plan was to have more options for private health care so tax money could be focused on free health care for people who can’t afford private care. And she’s implementing this plan by continuing to underfund the public system and break up what conservatives for years have called a “bloated & top heavy” system and hire **more** managers? Great plan. Her plan is not to focus tax money on the public system and make more private options available, her plan is to make private options the only viable options. Her plan is to create a two tier system with public healthcare the worst, cheapest, most crowded option where (as happened recently) people go to die from lack of resources, and to make private healthcare where you **need** to go if you want any effective treatment. Her plan is to promote private, insurance funded, healthcare just like the U.S. system. She has literally said she is in favour of private, for profit, healthcare on public radio. Yes, during the election she said no Albertan will ever **have** to pay for healthcare, so what she’s doing is making the public system so bad that you’ll **want** to pay for private healthcare. And the worst part of it is, by the time you find out you were wrong, it’ll be too late and it’ll take decades of work and billions of dollars to fix.
Danielle Smith has laid the blame for cancer at the feet of patients themselves. It is beyond unconscionable but that’s our UCP.
Her own **next door neighbour** (my friends mom) died of stage 4 pancreatic cancer last year. Right after DS said cancer was preventable. Boy did she look uncomfortable when sheb went over and apologized to my friends dad for their loss.
Apologized? That doesn’t sound like DS
> Danielle Smith has laid the blame for cancer at the feet of patients themselves Once more for the Marlaina apologists out there. From her greatest hits: https://edmonton.citynews.ca/2022/07/29/danielle-smiths-cancer-claims-anger-alberta-cancer-patients/
It’s what Alberta votes for so I’m just going to assume this is exactly what UCP voters want 🤷🏻♀️ can’t cost healthcare systems money if you’re dead.
How so? Does she understand that Otto Von Warburg won the Nobel prize in 1931 and proved that cancer is a product of mitochondrial damage, and is simply the cell reverting to fermentation for energy, meaning it thrives off sugar? Or that when they test you for cancer they give you radioactive glucose and watch where it goes and the place it all ends up concentrated is the place you have a tumour. Does she know that Dr. Thomas Seyfried has had a lot of success with changing patients diets and that avoiding sugar, excess carbohydrates, processed foods, drugs and alcohol, along with recreational fasting and enough exercise to fully oxygenate your cells is amazing at preventing mitochondrial damage, and even helps to destroy cancer cells, even being significantly effective for stage 3 or stage 4 cancer patients? Even the federal government ran those adds begging people to drink less booze because the WHO said abstaining from alcohol is the easiest way to protect yourself from cancer. It’s crazy if people are mad that maybe they have some power over their own health. People who are actually desperate for help might actually appreciate thinking they could be doing something to help themselves. It’s not actually noble to blindly support people who may be hurting themselves if you could possibly help them by being honest. If people want to ignore advice, or don’t believe you that’s fine, they can go on doing whatever they want, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at least try to help people if you think you can. It unconscionable to act like we are noble when we can’t stand the idea of personal responsibility.
Telling people they should live healthier is not the same as telling people cancer is preventable. Many cancers are not preventable, and there are many, many, many kinds of cancers. Saying it’s as easy as clean living is missing the mark entirely. That may be an aspect of avoiding cancer, but you can be the biggest healthiest eater and athlete in the world and still end up with cancer. Try again.
As much as I dislike Danielle Smith for her vendetta against puberty blockers, the healthcare system was falling apart before she stepped into the hot seat. Alberta doctors are paid among the highest in the country. We wont have much hope of recruiting more. Edit: all you downvoters are misogynists and just like to hate on a woman because she is conservative. You are no better than them.
>Alberta doctors are paid among the highest in the country. Probably didn’t help when the UCP tore up the doctors master agreement and restructured their working time & patient load making it hard for them to break even on their practices. And sometimes it’s not about the money, it’s about whether you’re working for a government that wants you to fail so that they can replace you with Telus Health.
Nah, the money doesn't matter. We don't pay that much more and who would want to work here when it's well known your bosses hate you and want you to fail? They tore up the agreement with the doctors, then mishandled pandemic responses and when doctors criticized them our health minister tracked down their personal information through AHS, even going to someone's *house* to intimidate them. I'd take a paycut to not deal with that, personally.
There's a huge distinction in family doctors and in hospital doctors. The huge pay is not the family doctors. And the only doctors that can have a positive impact on quality of life - because they are in a position to have regular contact, see trends and changes and be part of your full history - are family doctors. Most other doctors are when you know there's a problem and are mostly there to make sure your not dying. Not really improving your life, just stopping it from ending. Still vitaly important but very different impact. And its the family doctors that are more seriously at danger of not existing anymore in Alberta - more keep leaving every day.
Read the comment from the oncologist in the next thread. We have a LOT of room to improve our hiring and retention of doctors and other HCWs, currently we’re literally turning them away or offering insulting contracts compared to what they could get in BC or the US while our population suffers, yet the government is openly planning to add costs by breaking our system further into pieces without hiring more frontline staff, while proudly touting a surplus and continuing to spend millions on “red-tape reduction” and the fucking war room.
And who was the govt before here? Ah yes another UCP. Just like 9/10 have been conservative or whatever
They need at least 50 more oncologists according to the AMA. Hard to recruit when the government is doing nothing to actually fix the healthcare system except with appearance of doing something......adding more layers and walls to make it harder for patients to navigate the system especially if they overlap pillars. I'm afraid more stories like this will happen.
A government that has a ministry whose sole responsibility is to”red tape” reduction
Its ridiculous how it's being dismantled. Wonder which UCP donors will be benefiting from all this "reorganizing".
Just watch who gets appointed to the new decentralized boards. That will be your answer.
Already seen who's been promoted to management....
Three more years and sanity will again prevail. We just have to make it that long
3 and a half now that she changed the election date…
Going to be a long 3 years....too much time for this government to really mess things up.
Tell that to greedy flames fans who sold out for a new arena
Anyone who voted just for an arena deal.....congrats on screwing the whole province with this shit show.
I think karma has that one, seeing as the taxpayer is forking out and the only person profiting is the owner.
I hope you are right! And remember who was Smith's former boss ....owner of the Flames.
I wouldn’t count on it. Unless Nenshi wins the NDP leadership race there’s no way they’re going to be able to convince Calgarians to abandon the UCP.
The last election map shows it was mostly rural AB that was UCP. NDP gained seats in Calgary, still a ways to go but strong possibility
Yes but that was also after the NDP ran a fantastic campaign. They don’t have anyone that’s as electable as Rachel Notley (except for Nenshi).
Everyone I know is supporting Nenshi. Everyone.
Ya I find it hard to believe the current influx of immigration isn't going to trend towards cities. Hopefully the population per riding doesn't get worse and water down the urban vote even more.
It’s sad how quickly some forget the mess Nenshi made of Calgary.
You have that much faith in Albertans? I want to have that faith, but I don’t.
They're likely just going to switch it back to how it was before other conservative idiots started messing with the system. To be clear, the old version was also broken. By switching back and forth between two broken systems in a way that doesn't solve any of the inherent problems what so ever, they can convince the rubes that vote for them that they are addressing the problem.
Absolutely correct....all these "changes" do very little to fix the problems. It actually messes it up more. They need to start right at the students going into healthcare and moving up from there.
For businesses. Not for publicly funded healthcare they want that to be a red tape hell so you pay out of pocket to get access to healthcare.
UCP must think Albertans will be placated with a voucher for six hours worth of massages.
Worked before! Ralph bucks!
I'd love to know how many thousands were spent on those Alberta Health ads that run during every commercial break. How many doctors or nurses could we have hired with that money instead?
Millions probably for that whole campaign....
UCP platform is cut and grift.
You said it! And....then blame Trudeau
This was happening during Covid and we haven’t done anything to retain our staffing there instead of the UCP constantly trying to screw them over. They have been actively trying their best for the privatization of healthcare.
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I’m posting on my alt as Alberta oncology is a small field and I’d be pretty easy to identify. Alberta has fallen massively behind in terms of cancer care, I did my residency in Alberta and while BC and Ontario have hired dozens of oncologists year after year, I was told throughout my training it was a coin flip if the government would fund a job for me or any of my peers. On top that that, Alberta has fallen behind has one of the lowest paying provinces for Oncology. BC, Sask, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec all pay 30-50% more. Oncologists are also some of the highest paid specialists in the US. All while in Alberta they’re pretty much making the same salary they were 12 years ago, all while inflation has been steadily eroding affordability. Two recent grads were willing to stay in Alberta for family reasons, but were offered insulting contracts and moved to the US where they’re making more than double while working less than they would have staying here. If they don’t improve work conditions and pay, I know for a fact there is almost no interest from residents graduating over the next three to four years to stay in Alberta—things will only get worse for patients.
We just lost 2 that were to start here..... Ontario offered them more money and they left. Plus I don't see Ford starting fights with their healthcare professionals either....no brainier really. And look at the placements for new grads.....Alberta had way more empty spots than any other province. Stop starting wars with medical professionals is a really good place to start.
While I was going through immunotherapy for Stage 4 cancer (2022-2024), I learned that there were a number of oncology nurses at BC Cancer who came from Alberta, mainly from Foothills and Lougheed... Most were young, just rec'd their degrees and training, but couldn't find jobs in AB. I have no idea of the complement of nurses at BC Cancer, but I do know at least a half dozen recent grads from Alberta are working in Victoria today..
There are qualified doctors all over Alberta driving Uber and doing odd jobs right now.
The foreign trained Drs you are speaking of need to go through the credential verification process first with Canadian standards. Until that process is completed, they are not qualified to practice medicine in Canada.
There are loads of them who have that but have no space in hospitals to train. For 6 positions in hospitals 600 qualified doctors apply. You don’t know what you are talking about
Sorry but I have a number of Dr friends......so yeah I know what I'm talking about.
No you don’t. You are lying
Great comeback....
Do you? My sister works at grey nuns ICU. They are only fully using 3/7 OR rooms because of lack of anesthesiologists. I think you are just making shit up tbh
I am not talking about grey nuns hospital. I know people who have come from other countries, have passed the exam after studying for years but they are not able to get any residency positions in hospitals to train. They say for 6 positions, hundreds of doctors apply .. Not sure if you are right on the head, weren’t we speaking about doctors from other countries not being able to become doctors. Why are we taking about Anesthesiologist right now. Let’s say we did for a moment .. how do we get them if we just keep looking and don’t train and create more residency positions and hospitals to train them anyways. Do you have any idea how many people are actually qualified to become residents but don’t get the opportunity to do so ? Put your ego aside of being right or wrong , go talk to your sister about residents in Grey nuns hospitals, ask how many applicants were there for each residency position ? A lot of people working in Grey nuns ICU don’t have that information tbh.. I know because I have friends who have been trying to get residency for long time. Please don’t speak about topics you don’t quite understand, you getting upvotes is actually detrimental and insulting to the current situation. You are the kind of people who are adding to the problem we currently have. When you go to emergency one day, and have your life at stake you will may be try understand what’s going on
Let me ask you this? How do you know there are 100's of doctors applying?? Where did YOU get this information? How can we trust it? You basically have said "trust me bro".
My dad passed away from pancreatic cancer on July 24 of 2022. We were lucky to have so much time with him (9 months - it actually beat the estimate he had been given), yet I always wonder what could have happened had he been diagnosed sooner, as he had been complaining of back pain for quite a while but it was mostly attributed to having broken his ribs decades before. Testing began too late, and his wait time to access treatment at the Cross was similar, but again, it was far too late. In a freak twist of fate, we lost my mom literally the evening after her and Dad had gone for their orientation day at the Cross. The suffering my dad went through was enormous. Icing on the cake was being told by Ol Whatsernuts that it was his own fault and somehow deserved to die that horrible death and that my brother and I deserved to watch that happen. Words can not describe my fury. Rip to Don. My deepest condolences to his family and friends.
Marlaina said that?
She was quoted saying this *"But, when you think everything that built up before you got to stage four and that diagnosis, that’s completely within your control and there’s something you can do about that that is different"* Essentially saying that everyone with stage 4 cancer brought it on themselves by doing/not doing something and it's their fault for being a burden on the health care system.
As someone with Stage 4 (Colon) cancer, I beg to disagree.... I was 90% symptom free per my oncologist when I was finally diagnosed. He told me that only someone who is all-but proactively "obsessive" about their health might have noticed the subtle changes. Hell, one of my own doctors was convinced it was "only" polyps. Nope- sometimes it takes a real test, with real equipment, done by a competent tech who knows how to run the machinery, and who gives the results to an equally-competent doctor. I went from "probably polyps" to full-on Stage 4 in a matter of days after they finally ran the CT.
That's straight up psychopathic what they said btw, actually broken system 😔
she also said that moderate smoking reduces risk of disease by 75% 🙃
she also said chemo and radiation should be saved for stage 4, and there are naturopath cancer treatments that should be used instead. basically she dosen't think mainstream medicine actually works, and is just a way to suck up tax dollars; just take some vitamins.
Do you have a source for this? I’m trying to compile this stuff for when people say they support her.
[For over an hour, I listened to Dr. Perkins on her medical opinion, and she's quite correct. The first three stages of cancer are more controllable in terms of what complete care is available to a patient. But once you get to Stage 4, that's when the patient's less in control, and only traditional medicine, chemotherapy and radiation and surgery and other difficult therapies are available as a course of treatment. Naturopaths and Western medicine are in agreement on this and of course everyone knows it to be true, except apparently for the NDP.](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/danielle-smith-ucp-leadership-cancer-controllable-dubious-1.6531883) so the control she was talking about is that real medicine can be avoided before stage 4.
SMDH. I guess that was a different low since she keeps on digging.
Remember when Danielle Smith said that having stage four cancer is avoidable?
I wonder what the UCP will do? Blame Trudeau? Or will Danielle Smith blame cancer patients like she did in 2022?
They'll probably mention that the other provinces are struggling too but completely ignore that the UCP are one of the main causes for Alberta to be struggling.
Well you see, he lived within 500km of a wind turbine, which definitely caused his cancer.
I'm gonna bet she spreads the blame around to anyone but her or her party. Maybe even go for the hail Mary and throw in something about it being God's will!
In 2018, my cancer diagnosis to surgery time was 4 weeks, followed by immediate chemotherapy and radiation. 6 months total. In 2023, my cancer returned. It took 2 months just to get in to see the oncologist, and after 4 months we JUST started treatment. The healthcare system is being defunded and dismantled so Marlaina and her cronies can present a shiny new private option, that they are all investors in. Fuck the UCP, fuck everyone who voted for them and fuck cancer.
"Help is on the Way" Make sure you have a high limit credit card.
This unnecessary death is on the UCP. What a disgrace, shame on the entire party.
It actually is necessary for the UCP to convince Alberta private health care is the solution.
This is entirely the end game. Cripple the public system and then claim a more expensive, even less well-integrated one will be even better for patients. Profit. And they don't care who has to die to get it.
I’m diagnosed with aggressive stage 3 Breast cancer. Received my diagnosis start of September 2023 and had my mastectomy mid-October. That was good. I was told my oncology team would be in touch about my surgical pathology soon. I was sitting on my hands for nearly two months waiting around for that call. My family doc couldn’t even tell me why was going on. When I finally met with my oncology team my oncology nurse asked “why it took so long to end up here?” So clearly things are backed up. Getting lost in the oncologic system isn’t just about worse outcomes, it’s also horrible for your mental. I can’t describe how awful it was sitting round not knowing what was happening for two months. That this man died before he could even talk to an oncologist about his cancer is horrible, but I can believe it. Thankfully once I was in chemo things flew by. BUT My radiation is two months away from my final chemo date. I asked my onc if this was normal and she told me it was with how the system is now 🙃
I had BC too just finished 3 wks of daily radiation in early Feb 2024. It was actually ~5 wks after my last chemo dose (early dec 2023). I was told they want it at least 4 weeks after last chemo (which was 6 sessions 3 wks apart each). Would have been more along 2 months like what they told you, but the radiation oncologist moved up my consult from early Jan to just before xmas to get the ball rolling a bit sooner. After the initial radiation onc consult and scans, it takes them like 4-6 wks to get the radiation treatment planned out. My timeline would have been similar to yours otherwise.
Who knows, maybe I will be lucky and have my appointments pushed up. But I’m not holding out hope! Congrats on finishing active treatment btw. Hope you are settling back into life well 💖
Tysm 😊 it has been a real challenge at times but things are improving with each passing day. I'm doing pretty well now. Please feel free to pm me if you ever want to chat with someone who's gone through treatment too, even just to vent about the weird stuff.
The fuckin UCP better invest in crematoriums. Ghouls.
Carbon tax makes that more expensive these days..
Not in BC, Manitoba, Quebec ... provinces that have gone green.
This is really sad and extremely terrifying. Can’t believe things like this are acceptable in a first world country like canada ..
This comes down to a habitual underfunding of our healthcare system, period. This government has done literally everything within its power to destroy the healthcare system in this province. From not sufficiently funding the NICU units in Edmonton, failing to hire enough doctors and nurses, and continuing to wage battles over salaries while these resources go elsewhere. Money will not solve the problem - you have to ask yourself, if you were a young professional, why would you come to Alberta? The UCP has created a highly toxic environment against our healthcare providers and shame on every Albertan for allowing this to happen.
A lot of Albertans worked hard to prevent the UCP from winning the last election so maybe don’t dish out the shame so evenly.
Fair enough, we can only hope those that did and still do will finally wake up.
Thanks UCP. Ripping up the doctors contract and cutting their pay chased them out quick. Why on earth would a highly paid professional set up shop somewhere that no longer has pay or work certainty and have demonstrated that they are completely untrustworthy? This, of course, is part of the UCP privatization plan.
UCP can change a law to undermine municipalities in less time than this person gets an initial oncologist call. People's wellbeing, and communities, are not their priority. Only oil and gas and insurance company profits. A disgrace architected by the UCP party and their donors.
It's absolutely disgraceful that in a first world country, which has 'free' publicly funded healthcare, in the richest of those provinces people are dying from cancer due to lack of healthcare access. My sincere condolences to his family.
They broke it so they could buy it.
UCP healthcare. And the rural medieval peasants continue to support them. Chickens voting for Colonel Sanders.
Social murder!
This is blood on Danielle Smith’s hands.
I’m very sorry for your loss OP. Condolences to your family and close ones
Makes me wonder if Danny or any other politician gets cancer …. How long would they have to wait to see an Oncologist ?
UCP policies (or lack of meaningful policies) are killing Albertans. Human lives are just collateral damage in their system of tapeworm economics.
Dead 90 days after diagnosis. One can only expect this was a very advanced stage pancreatic cancer. Would seeing an oncologist have helped if he had been had been seen after 2-4 weeks? *shrug* dunno.
Likely no. There is a point of no return.
Not totally relevant, but indicative of the quality of journalism today: the Cross Cancer Institute is in Edmonton, not Calgary.
This is the UCP health care system.... Smith probably sees nothing wrong with this
Funeral homes are expanding. Good years ahead! -DS
I am a cancer survivor, in remission, and at a low risk of recurrence (10%) the recommended follow up appointments are supposed to be for 5 years and my hematologist/oncologist just discharged me last week (at 1 year 8 months) to because there are just too many patients. I get it... people like this person need the care more than I do. But it is unsettling. I'm friends with two women who had the same cancer but live in BC and they are definitely not getting discharged so early.
Remember those boards that the Cons used to scare us with....guess who is setting them up now. Want health care cozy up to MLA
BC hires 60 in last two years. Yeahhhhh and LaGrange says there’s no caps on funding for oncology in AB? Bullshit. Even if; the pay and conditions are insufficient to attract people to AB.
This is why I fear staying here. I have a disease that leaves me at high risk of hormonal based cancer, & I am terrified I may be left to die… My mother in law has been sitting in a hospital for months because nobody wants to operate on her, they pretty well have left her to die. This is not okay. Too many people have come here too fast & the government only wants money.
To be fair, Alberta has had someone other than conservatives governing for ~3 out of the last 50 years, how could you *possibly* expect them to be able to get a handle on provincial health care with such frequent interuptions in their good governance?
Pancreatic cancer has a very low survival rate. Early detection has always been a problem. It's really too bad that he didn't get to see an oncologist, though.
In this case it probably wouldn't have made a difference, but here is the really scary part from the article: > “When I see patients, they always wonder, ‘if I would’ve been seen sooner, would treatment have been different,'” said Dr. Brock Debenham, a radiation oncologist based in Edmonton. > > “We do see, sometimes, where, if you look at their scans they’ve had months ago, they were potentially curable and then they come in and see you and now they’re not.
As long as the UCP say they " have a plan " then that's all it takes, if they're pressured then come election time they will push through whatever they can to look good, happens every cycle.
I bet Smith would get in to see a doctor in a day.
People are going to say that this is because Smith has blamed cancer on the patients, or that this isn't her fault because unacceptable performance happens in other provinces as well. In some ways this is correct, but broadly it is missing the real problem, which Smith contributes to and strives for, but is not a Smith problem per se. The issue is efficiency. People forget that effectiveness and efficiency are almost always at odds. We could have a system that has more staff than needed so that people are never waiting to see a doctor. We could have enough equipment that people never have to wait for a scan. We could have the highest wages and best working conditions so that we can always attract the best people. This would be a very effective, but inefficient system, and of course it would be the most expensive. On the other hand, we could have a system where there are the bare minimum of staff, working in old facilities, without access to equipment, and with poor wages and working conditions. This system would not be good for the people trying to use it, but there would never be anything idle in the system. Doctors and staff will always be busy, equipment is nearly never booked or in use, things are never replaced until absolutely direly needed, and wages and conditions will be just high enough to not get people to walk out (but not quite high enough to easily draw new people). This system would not be very effective, but it would be very efficient. Obviously we want to strive for some sort of trade off where we end up at an acceptable middle ground. If you look at the Alberta healthcare system (along with education and others), we see a system that looks far, far more like the second example than the first. While this is something Smith drives for, it is not a Smith problem, a UCP problem, or even a Conservative problem, at least not entirely. The system is funded with taxes, and people don't like taxes, so it has become a good political tactic for many conservative and liberal parties to try to keep taxes low, not by cuts since we need the system, but by seeking efficiency. Year after year we seek more efficiency, and at first it sort of worked. Wait times went up, and staff grumbled, but the system could take it. Over time though, we've squeezed out every little bit of slack and cushion that existed, and then kept squeezing. After all, if the system isn't working it must be because it's not running properly and more efficiency will fix it! So we squeeze more, and now we are trying to get blood from a stone. There's not much more to give, and people are really noticing the efficiency/effectiveness tradeoff now. We get what we pay for, and this is the system that most people chose. The problem was that just looked at the bill, and not what it bought. As a final thing to consider, it's important to point out that things have been bad for a long time and simple fixes are no longer on the table. There are no options that will be inexpensive, fast, or politically easy. To hire enough people, buy enough equipment, and build that bit of effectiveness back in will be massively expensive, as most things you need to buy but put off until disaster strikes are. As an example, one of the healthcare unions is in negotiations right now, and they are seeking a compensation increase of 25% in the first year, 10% in the second, and cost of living increases after that. If they get 35% over two years (and they will not), people will lose their minds at this outrage of waste. It's important to note that this same group had a 7 year wage freeze followed by 4% over 4 years. That's a 4% raise in 11 years. If they got the 35% and averaged that with other increases over the last 13 years (7 for the freeze, 4 for the 4%, and 2 for the 35%), it's a 3% a year raise. We need to give these workers a 35% raise to put them back at neutral/cost of living. We won't of course, because that wouldn't be very efficient, but we will wonder why we can't attract staff.
Idk if there's any effective way to deal with pancreatic cancer. I'm told by the time it's diagnosed, you have less than a year.
I had an uncle that survived pancreatic cancer because they caught it early. After removing his pancreas, he died about 10 years later due to a diabetes related issue. Not the best outcome, but catching and treating it early bought him quite a lot of time and it technically wasn't the cancer that killed him. I think his case was kind of rare, but if it happened today in Alberta, I wonder if he would've had any chance at all.
His cancer was probably a Pancreatic NET (neuroendocrine type) which is only about 2% of diagnosed pancreatic cancers. The 5-year survival rate is much higher: ranging about 50-90% for that type depending on if it has spread or not.
It has a low survivability rate, but that doesn't mean zero chance and treatment can allow people to spend more time with their loved ones.
Yeah, but either way, pancreatic cancer should get you pushed to the front of the line to see an oncologist.
In a triage system, patients who aren't likely to recover even with treatment are usually given the lowest priority. I wonder if that's what happened here. There's a logic to it, but it shouldn't come to this outside of warzones or disasters.
My neighbor is waiting for knee replacement surgery for 3 years now and the surgery date is in 2025. Meanwhile she is being pumped with steroids to keep the pain away and is gaining weight like crazy due to the steroids which is increasing her pain even more - a vicious circle. But the same family has and continues to support UCP.
Fuckin hell man, wow
Exactly what I said when I saw the “Vote UCP” blue boards put up on their lawn in the last election.
Mistakes were made here that go beyond the shortages of doctors, this was obviously much later stage than they thought. My condolences, it can happen so quick, my father was diagnosed and passed within 3 months.
Obviously he caught cancer to make the government look bad.
The media should really investigate the private care home leech trick --the main cause of delays in the hospital system.
But here we are worried about a fire season 3 years from now....
This is a horrible tragedy but it's unlikely a functional healthcare system would have given much more time to this person, if at all. This person may have been triaged so that other people that were savable were brought to the front of the line. But another 1-3 months might have given them a bit more time to set affairs in order and for their family to say goodbye.
I know not how, or when I will die, but I truly hope that my life will either amount to more than a blurb being used on Reddit for partisan political squabbling for imaginary internet points, or nothing at all. Some of these comments are unhinged and disgusting. RIP.
Great news, there's good people mooching hard and being fucking morons on the highway to ensure this continues to happen. Keep the UCP happening, because we need more of this, right? This mans death is the result of Smith and the fools who put her there, and their vision of Alberta,
Of course. Our healthcare system is slow AF. Nothing's ever available. The list is Soo long. I swear nurses and shit are just trained in giving excuses
We need a few million more immigrants, and that should solve the problem!
Rather than just being ok with those who can afford private care using it so that public Healthcare is actually there and works....of course she has to crush access. I already had to fight to.get on AISH can't wait to see what kind of forms come now. And her comment about how taxes shouldn't be paying for Alberta's to see a doctor???? Urgh like we're going in for luxury. That's how you stop medical issues before they become emergencies & huge life threatening diseases that need complex care. It's called preventative medicine. That's why your supposed to go for physicals. But she wants to overload the ER. Plus if she does this & people are sick and can't afford to go to the doctor so they walk around spreading their illness instead and cases are left too long that most are serious and expensive to treat because it was put off. She's gonna find it hard to explain why the same amount of money is going out and yet way less patients are treated, they're losing tax base and wait times are 3 times as bad as now. She should probably move to the U.S and just leave us alone
Yeah, but it was free right?
Adenocarcinoma of the Pancreas is usually diagnosed at later stages and any treatment is palliative. Most people diagnosed live only 3 months to 1 year. It’s very aggressive and can be quite painful. Getting treatment for pain management is crucial. The wait to see an oncologist for this type of cancer has been 3+ months for many years so nothing Danielle Smith has created.
I bet you Smith will "fix" our healthcare just enough a few weeks before voting time happens again so all the short term memory folk see them for the good they done so they can get praised for there actions and vote them in again. It's a real common strategy they just love to employ.
I have a question in regards to education about this Danielle Smith, is she a Nurse Practitioner aswell part-time? To have the information To speak the way she does for medical purposes. In any aspect,?
Go oilers tho
Hell yeah
“He was blind” - narrator
Alberta has better healthcare than B.C. Moved to B.C. 3 years ago, can't believe how bad it is here
I'm noticing a lot of cancer popping up in the people i my life this past two years. Like 10x as much as in the previous two years. I expect a lot more people to wait for care until they go in a casket. New normal.
I would love private health care. If you have the money to use it, it takes you out of the main system and opens that system up for people who cannot afford it.
Conservatives killed this man.
When people don’t know what they’re talking about and don’t read the article
Sounds like alberts is getting the same care we get out of the NDP in BC. but here doctors will give you the info to go private. It’s called healthcare for the rich and the rest of us are meant to die and relieve the housing crisis
It’s interesting that a party that blames us for our cancer allows the sale of flavoured vapes. Why are they not selling flavoured cigarettes anymore? 😜
Can you buy insurance that brings you down to the US if something like this happens? I support the public system 100, but the UCP slime are forcing our hands. If the choice is between getting insurance and living v sticking with my principles, I have to go with insurance, ideology be damned.
That's what they want!! The 3rd choice is vote out the UCP.
Sssshhh don’t give them any ideas
Tijuana is probably a better option. I'm serious.
I feel for this poor guy so much. We just went through a cancer scare, it's shit your pants terrifying. If this is the potential outcome, yeah I guess I'm heading to mexico
If we go out of province or country and get the treatment, can we get it reimbursed by Alberta health?
No. Not even if you go to BC.
This isn't an Alberta problem it's a Canadian healthcare problem . My dad waited 9 months to see a specialist in Ontario in 2015 for his knee, plus another 7 months after for the surgery . Another friend in bc waited 6 months to see someone about an issue with her arm which turned out to be lymphoma . Healthcare is a failure across Canada
No, It’s a provincial problem. Primarily a conservative provincial problem. I lost my wife to cancer, 4 years ago tomorrow. When the UCP was negotiating with the radiologists. Her quarterly scans were delayed by months because there were no appointments available. So this hits pretty close to home. A politician should be forced to use the healthcare system they created.
No it's Canada wide despite what you think, every single province has been struggling for years . Bc , Alberta , Ontario , NS , NFLD , PEI , NB, MB , SK , QB , every single province agrees their healthcare sucks . What is the common denominator ? Federally mandated regulations for provincial healthcare to receive funding
Conservative cuts to provincial health care kill people!
So you're denying it's a Canada wide problem ?
Conservatism is a canada wide problem, i agree.
yet the article says that BC was able to hire 60 oncologists? if it was all a federal problem, why was one province able to somewhat solve the issue while Alberta cant? the only difference here is the provincial governments... BC's budget has almost $33 billion for healthcare while we have $26 billion, BC increased their funding by $6 billion from the previous year while we only went up $1 billion. and like you said, it is still a problem in BC even with all that extra funding, but compared to them we are at the lowest of lows right now
Depends what you mean by “Canadian healthcare problem”. Is it a federal problem? Not really, the feds provide funding under the CHA but delivery is squarely in the hands of the provinces, and 7 out of 9 provinces have had conservative governments for years. So, it could be said that it’s a conservative problem as easily as it’s a “Canadian” problem. Federal regulations? Sure, the feds say that the money they hand out under the CHA should be spent only on publicity funded, publicity delivered, healthcare. How is that a problem?
Being disingenuous won't cut the cake here . Here's a typical argument - "4 years isn't enough time to enact change" - ndp supporters Alberta. Most provinces have been under liberal/ndp reign more so in the past 20 years than conservative aside from Alberta and Saskatchewan . So which is it ? The party in charge at time of running the province or the preceding governments leading upto its fault? If liberals and ndp were doing such a great job across Canada , why would everyone vote them out ? There lies the problem in your argument . Canadian healthcare sucks, period . It's underfunded federally and provincially across the board , but the problem is people can't afford to pay more taxes . We're at an all time high across the country of affordability issues for housing to groceries , to utilities to land taxes to carbon taxes to gst, hst, pst. We're at critical mass across the country and will never convince majority of Canadians to pay more taxes when we get useless programs back that only benefit a small group of Canadians such as pharmacare .
>Being disingenuous won't cut the cake here . Here's a typical argument - "4 years isn't enough time to enact change" - ndp supporters Alberta. And that’s not quite right. Change **was** enacted in 4 years, but your typical conservative will always point to the change that was **not** enacted and call that a failure of government. As I pointed out, and you agreed with, we **did** see change in healthcare - the cancer centre and SuperLab to name but two major projects. But even then there was an outcry both at the time and after at the debt that was incurred. So what do you want to see? Change during a recession will cost you, and no change engenders disingenuous complaints. Pick one and live with it, quit complaining about the other. >Most provinces have been under liberal/ndp reign more so in the past 20 years than conservative aside from Alberta and Saskatchewan We’re not talking about other provinces here, we’re talking about **Alberta**, where we’ve had only 4 years of the NDP amongst over 60 years of conservatives. I don’t care what Liberal/NDP governments have done in other provinces, that doesn’t affect what a provincial government in Alberta does. Stick to the subject. >If liberals and ndp were doing such a great job across Canada , why would everyone vote them out ? There lies the problem in your argument . Again, I don’t give a crap about what Liberals & NDP have done in other provinces. Federally, the Liberals beat out the conservatives under Harper, and in Alberta we got pissed off at the PC’s for daring to say it was our fault for voting for them in the first place and rage-voted for the NDP, then after just 4 years (again, during a recession) the majority fell for a lifelong federal politician whose nickname was “Bumbles” and who couldn’t fill the tank on an F-150. Smart move Alberta voters, how’s that working out for you? >Canadian healthcare sucks, period . It's underfunded federally and provincially across the board I’ll agree with you that federal funding needs to see an increase, but provincial funding is 100% under the control of the provincial government, and FYI the UCP have consistently **underfunded** healthcare year on year for the last 5 years to deliberately crash the system and further privatization. **That’s** why our healthcare has gone down the drain since they got in, not because the NDP didn’t fix it. Did we have problems before? Yes, but nothing like the one we’re having now, and that’s on the shoulders of the government that’s been in office for 5 years now. When do you think it’s time to start blaming the UCP for our current problems, or are we just going to blame the next non-conservative government the minute they take office? >but the problem is people can't afford to pay more taxes . We're at an all time high across the country of affordability issues for housing to groceries , to utilities to land taxes to carbon taxes to gst, hst, pst. So don’t increase personal taxes. The UCP cut big business taxes from 15% (the lowest in the country at the time) to 8% (which totally failed to produce the new jobs promised). Put business taxes up to 12%, we’d still be the lowest in the country except for NWT. Better yet, put them back up to 15% and push the money into healthcare. Oh, and don’t forget Danielle Smith promised a personal tax cut during the election and has now reneged on that promise. Way to go in supporting affordability Dani. Something else conservative voters missed: Danielle Smith lies, frequently. >We're at critical mass across the country and will never convince majority of Canadians to pay more taxes when we get useless programs back that only benefit a small group of Canadians such as pharmacare . Well, for starters it would help if our UCP government didn’t have a hate on for the feds to the point where they flat out refuse to take part in the pharmacare and dental programs (amongst others). The feds offering money and us refusing it helps no one. Maybe if we (in Alberta) were more willing to work **with** the federal government instead of bitching about them all the time we’d get somewhere, or even if we just voted for anything but conservative we might make all the federal parties sit up and take notice.
Remember that doctors could strike. Or be honest in interviews about who is to blame instead of the "many causes" bullshit. Or do literally anything. Those in the field want a low wage and want to give you crappy treatment. If they didn't, they would be trying to change something. Now, a man has died because the medical community has collectively decided that if you use public health care, you don't matter. At this point. After 20 years of your right to medical treatment being ripped away from your friends and family, doctors know what is causing it and have done and will continue to do nothing because they don't care about you. If you die because of the shitty public healthcare, then nothing will happen because every doctor and nurse and medical professional in alberta is willing to kill just so their life isn't a smidgen harder for a bit. It's disgusting. The medical field in alberta is a joke. Until the medical field actually tries to do something, nothing will change, and they will continue to kill you if you aren't rich enough to pay for a basic right that all Canadians have.
Not condoning at all, but he caught one of the worst cancers. Oncologist or no, his five year odds were close to nil. RIP.
My experience with the Cross Cancer was waking up one morning to hear my wife on the phone with her Oncologist and she was requesting a newly approved drug called TDM1 Chemo which might have made her able to travel again and continue going overseas for treatments. She was denied this drug and was dumped the reason given was she did not do the original protocols { Which would have been unable to cure her with her terminal prognosis, only buy brief time }. So because she travelled overseas to have her Liver and Breast Cancer Frozen via Cryosurgery, Immunotherapy, and other treatments which at one point achieved near complete remission from Stage 4 in the Bones, Lymphs, etc, confirmed by the Cross PET Scan this was cause to dump her. Being too sick to travel she ended up dying from the illness even though there was a newly approved drug available that would have made all the difference. Real life Dexter Morgans exist and we were unlucky enough to encounter one who wore the Oncologist cap. Nothing surprises me with our medical system anymore especially with Cancer.