Elephant in the Room – Private Healthcare

If you do not have access to X, you can read the article Picard is referring to here.

In 90 days?

Alberta’s healthcare: How are things going?

Read Jen Lee’s article for the answer.

How to Fix Healthcare?

Healthcare is a concern for many people. In this X thread, Dr. Meddings identifies what is needed to improve healthcare in Alberta. According to him, “[t]here is nothing magical about how to fix our healthcare system. There is no ‘private’ in here and it is all currently doable given political will.”

Hallway Medicine- Who is chosen?

“I invite the premier, health minster, and the people directly responsible for this decision to come for a sleepover in the hallway of one of our hospitals for a few days. Once you have experienced the indignity of eating, sleeping, and toileting in a thin gown in front of a ward full of people, visitors, doctors, custodial staff and other allied health-care workers, I might be willing to accept that this policy was made in an informed way.”

The above is from a powerful opinion piece written by Manpreet (Mona) Gill. Click here to read the full article.

ChatGPT versus doctors?

You have probably heard about ChatGPT and it’s ability to write essays, articles etc. However, what role could it play in healthcare? More specifically, how does ChatGPT measure up to doctors? To find out the answers to these and other questions, check out the following.

Did You Miss This Article?

If you have not read Dr. Gabriel Fabreau’s opinion piece found in the June 4, 2022, Calgary Herald, you will want to do so. Among other things, Dr. Fabreau provides an honest view of what it is like in Alberta hospitals. According to him, “After two years of COVID-19, our hospitals have never been worse off.”

Take a few minutes to read this important article. It will be time well spent.

Burned out, demoralized and calling for change

“Primary care is the bedrock foundation for our healthcare system and the collapse of this will have after shocks felt at all levels of health care delivery. Having a family physician means promoting preventative medicine, doing outpatient work ups re directing care away from overwhelmed ER departments when appropriate, providing earlier more manageable disease diagnosis, collaborating with specialist and ensuring you get the best care possible. We are instrumental in decreasing the number of in patients and over capacity at the hospital. We help transition patients to short stay units, long term care or follow up on our discharged patients, and some of us even do house calls for the infirm. Good care means taking initiative and ensuring our patients don’t fall through the ever enlarging cracks in the system.”

Click here to read the full article.

Why are healthcare workers burning out?

iStock-Juanmonino

Given that healthcare workers have been dealing with the pandemic for over two years, it is fully understandable that many of them are burnt or burning out. Howevever, as the following statement suggests, the underlying reason for healthcare worker burnout may have existed well before the pandemic began.

“Our system was not okay before COVID-19. It was functioning because of the people in it, and because they give 110 percent every time they come into work….The cracks that were there widened and it became apparent to everybody.”

Click here to read the full article.