Mary Ann McWhirter's letter to the editor on January 19, 2013 has prompted me to write once again to voice my concerns and opinions regarding our health care, although deep down I realize it will not make a difference.
You say in your letter that you are trying to come up with an explanation for the current state of our health care in Redvers and other rural areas. I think our health care is controlled and dictated to by bureaucrats, and it makes my blood boil to think that they have such powers. Emergency services cannot be carried out because we only have one doctor. The hospital cannot be functional because we only have one doctor. We do not all live in Regina or Saskatoon, Estevan or Weyburn. We, the rural people, also require these services.
When SCHR closes our hospitals, be it Redvers, Kipling or wherever, they tell us to go to Moosomin which is not even in our health district.
When we picked up our mail on Feb 12, 2013, the Moosomin newspaper, The World Spectator, was in our mailbox. In the article on the front page, "Moosomin meets with health minister", one issue mentioned is that the Moosomin facility is seeing a lot of patience from SCHR, even as far as Estevan, Bienfait and Oxbow. Because these patients are residents of SCHR, the funds intended to cover the care of these patients is going to SCHR, but the funding is not following these patients to Moosomin. Really makes me wonder what Sun Country is doing with our health care dollars. THINK ABOUT IT! In my opinion it is a form of dishonesty on the part of Sun Country, and they should be sending these funds to the Moosomin Facility being they are the ones caring for Sun Country patients.
Why can we not work with Moosomin, (too much politics maybe) being we occupy their beds when we require hospitalization. Possibly they could use our hospital which is sitting idle, for respite, palliative care, convalescing patients. This could free up some of their beds for acute care patients. Maybe if they looked at this, some sort of arrangement could come about, or is Sun Country afraid they would have to fund such an arrangement?
I feel as long as we are in SCHR, our health care will remain a MESS. Before the set-up of the health regions, our health care seemed to be much superior, and we certainly did not have all these hassles.
We are told they have cut down waiting times for surgeries. Well I know some patients who have waited much too long and are still waiting.
We were happy to finally have a physician set up practice in Redvers after our clinic had been closed for so long. We no longer had to travel to other centers for doctor's appointments and take up these doctors and their patient's time.
We doctored with Dr. Lettie from the time she arrived in Redvers, and in my opinion she is a caring and compassionate doctor. She investigated our health issues, and took time to review and explain our test results and required treatments. If she was concerned about them, she would order further testing or refer us to specialists. THANK YOU Dr. Lettie for the good care!
Marga Cugnets's reply to Mary Ann McWhirter's letter to the editor on Feb 2, 2013 gives me the impression that she is passing the blame onto someone else. Could SCHR not visualize that eventually a serious emergency would come up and with no care available, a fatality could result. Luckily, this wasn't the case but how about next time? I cannot imagine the frustrations our physicians (when we have one) have to deal with.
In your response Marga, you say the staff and doctor have made immediate changes to procedures at the health center to avoid similar situations in the future. Which staff are you referring to? Could you please tell the people of Redvers and area what the new RULES are regarding emergency services? We would like concrete details of these changes. After all, we are entitled to honest answers as we are the tax payers, and the tax payers pay your wages, which makes you responsible to the people. And as far as the doctor goes, she definitely has made "immediate changes' as you say. She has decided to leave. What a MESS we are facing again. How much longer will we have to wait to get another doctor, and the re-opening of the clinic? We need at least two doctors if we ever hope to have hospital and emergency services.
The article Cindy Moffatt wrote in the Feb. 22, 2013 Carlyle Observer, HEALTH SCARE OR HEALTH CARE, certainly gives a description of my concerns.
Try to understand the stress of the elderly having to travel long distances for doctor's appointments when they are not feeling well. How about the physical and emotional stress that families of palliative patients experience when they have to travel numerous trips, and long distances several times a week to be with their loved one? Take time to speak to these people and they will tell you.
We feel like we have been put on the back burner for much too long, and it is time that our government and SCHR take a serious look at our health care situation here in Redvers and the rest of our health region. I urge other people to write in their concerns as this is the only way we might get some action.
Jocelyne Cook
