| Health care abuse by users leads to increased costs |
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| Local Content - Editorial |
| Written by production |
| Thursday, 28 January 2010 17:31 |
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Anyone who has ever spent a night in the waiting room of the local emergency department at Chinook Regional Hospital or any other health facility understand first hand the real reason behind long wait times. Far too many Albertans are using the emergency department as their primary care physician. Rather than getting their own doctor and addressing their health care needs on a regular basis, including treatment and prevention, they wait until they are sick enough to warrant a trip to the emergency room. Others don’t even wait until that point. The waiting is often filled with people who have a bad cold or are complaining of on going pain. These are not emergency situations and it costs the health care system when people think they can jump the line by just showing up in emergency instead of booking an appointment to see a doctor at a medical clinic. There are even patients who use emergency as a stop gap for medication refills. Instead of being responsible for their own medicines and planning ahead for regular refills, they wait until they are out, those forcing an emergency situation resulting in a trip to emergency, often in one of our local ambulances. As Albertans we are invested in our health care system through tax support. Although we no longer pay health care premiums we continue to pay for our health care indirectly through taxation and overall provincial revenue. It’s our money and we should be more wise in how we spend it or waste it as the case may be. Last year close to two million Albertans accessed the province’s Primary Care Networks, representing a growth of 15 per cent over the previous year. The networks now serve more than 50 per cent of Alberta’s population, according to information found in the Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan Statistical Supplement 2008/2009, which is produced by Alberta Health and Wellness. Primary Care Networks are made up of doctors and other health professionals such as nurses, dietitians and pharmacists working together to provide primary health care to patients. Last year there were 30 such networks operating in the province and they could very well pave the way for a new overall approach to health care in this province. In fact they should. It only makes sense that everyone involved with health care work as a team with the best interest of the patient as the focus. With over 6,000 physicians now practising medicine in Alberta, less than a third are part of the Primary Care Network. It makes sense that if more doctors supported this overall team approach to health care maybe more Albertans would follow their example. By working together, patients and doctors, can ensure we have a sustainable health care system. |
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