Skip to content

Letters: Embarassed about health-care services in Red Deer

poor health-care service
10148206_web1_171213-SNM-T-Letters

poor health-care service

I had the displeasure of seeing and participating in the overrun emergency department in the Red Deer Hospital on Jan.4, 2018.

A family member visiting from Holland had become extremely unwell. We went to the walk-in clinic where the physician told family that she was very sick and should be in the hospital. He said that he called ahead and all was taken care of.

She was told to pay $1,000 to see a physician in emergency (because she was from out of the country) and she was ushered to admitting to do so. Upon payment, she was given a tank with oxygen and told to wait to be seen.

Five hours later … as the oxygen ran out, our patient began to wear thin. I asked the nurses if it was possible to get a refund of the $1,000 so we could take her elsewhere (for) medical attention? The nurses replied that she was a very sick lady and that if we took her from the facility we could not take the oxygen tank and she would most likely expire on the journey. If we took her to somewhere close by she would end up back in Red Deer.

It took seven hours for her to be seen in emergency and only when her breathing became so labored, regardless of the oxygen, was she taken back to see a physician.

I was embarrassed to have visitors from another country see how deplorable the health services in Red Deer have become. With overrun emergency staff and no beds, the conditions have become life-threatening. There are no excuses for this and Alberta Health Services, the Minister of Health, and the premier better step up to the plate and provide the front-line people with some much-needed beds.

Marylou Speelman, Red Deer

Photo radar cash cow

A letter was published in the Advocate written by Evan Greely about concerns photo radar was being used as a cash cow which the city promised would not happen.

Well with our experience I would say Mr. Greely’s concerns have come to be exactly that a “cash cow.”

Last August a ticket was issued in a school zone which was received in October. To our surprise we drove to the area stipulated on the ticket to find out the school was completely hidden by a church, the school zone sign was hidden behind a bike lane sign, put out by the well trained city workers, and the school was at the other end of the block from the street in question. We were not aware it was a school zone as one’s eyes are on the traffic and the intricacies of the intersection preceding the church. This ticket was issued on a Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. How many children do you suspect would be playing on a school yard in August late Sunday getting close to supper time?

When the school zone signs are hidden from the driver’s view the desire to protect children must be secondary to collecting fine money.

Some cities are doing away with photo radar, will Red Deer do the same?

Kathy Kashuba, Red Deer

downtown Safety hazard

I think the concrete abutment on the NW corner of Ross st and 49th Ave is a traffic hazard. It has been crashed into so many times. I don’t think the income from the 7 metres to the north of this hazard come close to the cost of the repairs to this structure. The removal of the abutment would not take away from veterans park and would create a free flow of traffic right though 49th Ave.

Look at the picture it is almost always covered with city hazard signs. Veterans park would look much better without this broken concrete abutment.

There are distracted drivers, inattentive drivers and careless drivers. But to have a concrete traffic hazard in a lane of flow through traffic these drivers and all drivers is a serious safety hazard and totally unexpected.

Leo Leonard, Red Deer