Letters Jan. 10: Pandemic poking holes in our shaky health-care system

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Health care in shambles

Alberta has lacked sufficient hospital capacity for at least the past 50 years or so. Albertans languish on waiting lists rather than getting access to the surgeries that they need in a timely fashion. Now COVID comes along and they blame the lack of capacity on it rather than address the long term problem of failing to build enough hospitals. I have heard all of the excuses over the years: “Then we would have to train and hire doctors and nurses..” So!? We wouldn’t be in such an untenable situation if people did the right thing, which usually isn’t the easy or cheap thing. As our population ages this problem will simply become even more exacerbated. I know that Edmonton is getting a southwest hospital, but if the previous governments had simply followed through on their promises to build Strathcona County, the fourth largest municipality in Alberta, a real hospital with beds and operating rooms, etc., instead of the glorified emergency room that it is, then a lot of the pressure of COVID would have been alleviated. I have waited seven months so far for kidney and liver cancer surgeries, but I count myself one of the lucky ones because I believe that it will be happening in a month or two. At least I don’t believe there’s a chance that I will die waiting like so many others.

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Kelsey Monarque

(The pandemic has highlighted the shortcomings of our health-care system.)

WHAT A FILTHY BUNCH

Since this pandemic has begun, I have been picking up discarded masks and I’m still astonished where people discard masks, outside pharmacies, urgent care, hospitals and most long-term care facilities! It is such a careless act of littering to the nth degree. During the situation we are in, it breaks my heart that people who discard these masks in this way have no care for others in our city that is suffering monetary loss, human loss and obviously loss of care for others. Be better!

LARRY FLEURY

(The pandemic has given us a window into the lives of our society, and much of it has not been pretty. And the reverse, obviously, with great people doing great things for others.)

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PAY ATTENTION

Re: Taxation emergency/inflation emergency. Is there any politician out there from any level of government who understands what your average Canadian is struggling with and sees the future? I don’t see it. Can anyone run a balanced budget? I don’t think so and I don’t think they give a blank.

G.C. CALHOUN

(Listen up, city council.)

GET TO WORK

Come on! Where are our PM and our Parliament when they are needed the most? While I know many opposition MPs want to sit, the PM’s past decisions to prorogue, call elections, have virtual sittings, delay sittings, etc., have made these jobs some of the best in the country. The PM is a man who is obviously absent, even when he is there! When will our once favoured nation realize that?

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GEORGE EWERT

(Where did it all go so wrong, George?)

A MILLION CUTS

Re: The multi-tax aka carbon tax on simple wheat. It starts when you till the soil and plant your crop, then maintain that crop. Stage one, now harvest the crop. Stage two, now dry that crop. Stage three, now transport that crop. Stage four, now mill that crop into flour and other products. Stage five, now bake that product into bread and other products. Stage six plus transportation. Now finally to the retail outlets. Stage seven, this is a true multi-tax. Do the math.

J. KOWALYK

(Yup. But you are saving the world through taxation, apparently.)

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