My Letter to Iris Evans

Today at school we had Cowboy Bug Day. It is Infection Week at the hospital and Cowboy Bug Day is a day where there are many presentations on BUGS. The theme this year was bugs that you could get while travelling to far out destinations. The Hon. Iris Evans, the Health and Wellness minister of Alberta made a 10 minute speech to everyone in Snell Hall. She asked us for her help as colleagues (she was a former RN.) and wanted us to e-mail her regarding what we thought that we could to get the government to spend more money on healthcare. She said that she would respond to anything sent to her and I'm holding her to it. At any rate, here is what I wrote:

Hon. Iris Evans:

I'm writing this e-mail in response to your speech that you made today at Cowboy Bug Day in Snell Hall and asking for help in how to think of ways that your ministry could get a larger piece of the pie. First of all, I'd like to thank you for coming. It's nice to see that the MLAs on TV are people and that they have a sense of humour. As a first year Dentistry student, it was also good to see that many different health care workers are attending the same functions too.

When it comes to health expenditures, it is no secret that every year they are increasing. As our society becomes increasingly aged, more and more people are going to require surgeries, chemotherapy, anti-hypertensives and anti-inflammatories to enable them to lead a normal life. There is no way around this and it is merely a consequence of a continued and sustained high standard of living. Therefore, this is something that has to be merely accepted.

This will now be the fourth year that I have attended the University of Alberta. In those years, the landscape of the university has changed considerably. In Engineering there have been two new buildings which are important for that faculty but the healthcare faculties will soon notice the biggest changes. The Heart institute and the other two research buildings will add to the amount of things that the University of Alberta Hospital can provide. However, these new buildings bring permanent costs. It's one thing to build these buildings, it's another thing to sustain them. Staff will have to be trained, taught or brought in from other provinces. These people (obviously) have to be paid. As well, the new equipment going into these buildings is not going to be cheap either. With the new announcement that Sherwood Park and Fort Saskatchewan are getting new hospitals, this will further increase costs. Since these new buildings are being built and there are going to be more healthcare workers, again the cost of the Health and Wellness ministry will increase regardless of any changes that are made.

Now I do not want to get into a debate or conversation about the provincial government not providing enough tax dollars to ensure that that there are enough healthcare providers to work in these buildings. That is important too but was not what you asked for help with today.

From the news media and likely by your own admission, the Tory caucus is not exactly sure what the 'Third Way' exactly is. I'm not sure either and it is for this reason that many people in Alberta are opposed to it. You alluded to it a bit today when you said that if people took a bit more responsibility in their health and saw the incredible costs that they could possibly have to the healthcare system, they might not use as many resources. This makes perfect sense. However, one can just point to the recent survey done in the Edmonton Journal stating that Edmontonians are more physically active than ever! Based on this logic Capital Health's expenditures should decrease as a result. Furthermore, the article also states that the Edmontonians who are less likely to be active are those with lower income; the people left out of the Alberta Advantage.

When I shadowed dentists they have always told me that 5% of your patients cause you 95% of your headaches. I'm sure that it is similar to the healthcare system in regards to expenditures. The 9 billion dollar budget is not divided by equally between Alberta's ~3 million residents. There are always going to be people who use it more than others from your aforementioned poor lifestyle choices, severely handicapped, bad genes, unfortunate accidents and bad luck.

What I think needs to be done is to take a census of people who are using healthcare services. One could find out their income status, their knowledge of their own health. I'd wager a guess that most people who are in hospitals are those of a lower income who are too busy trying to make ends meet to go get help or people who do not have a proper education to look after themselves. They likely don't seek the help of a health professional until it is too late to do so because they do not know where to go, cannot get there on their own or do not even know they are sick. One cannot expect people to take responsibility of their health when they themselves do not know how to. Once the Health and Wellness ministry discovers who are using the most healthcare dollars and why, one can then develop programs, systems that make it either easier for these individuals to get help sooner, quicker and at a cheaper price. It may come to be that a bigger piece of the pie isn't needed, but rather a different filling.

If this is done, one might discover that there are certain services that are lacking or could be administered more effectively. On a personal note, I have to wait over 7 weeks for an ultrasound for my knee. When I see that there are all these new buildings being built for healthcare, I wonder if the government's priority is to build buildings or to currently help its citizens.

The government needs to show to its citizens that their health is a priority. It needs to show its citizens that it wants a better healthcare system. A healthcare system that is the best in the world, and low cost healthcare system that is sustainable. Finally and most importantly, a healthcare system that everybody has access to regardless of income.

Thank you for your time,
David Coffin