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By Doug Collins

One Man's Opinion

COLLINS: Healthcare – so many cries for help, so little being done

Jun 4, 2023 | 6:00 AM

If you weren’t already afraid of where our healthcare system is heading, you should be now. More and more groups are issuing calls of alarm.

We’ve already heard stories of long waits in emergency rooms, people dying because of delays in seeing patients. Nurses, burned out, just quitting because of the pressure of trying to deal with too many patients and too few resources, are paying for TV ads to point out how bad the situation is.

Now doctors are getting into the act, pointing out how bad conditions are. When doctors in Surrey are suggesting that conditions are so bad that one of the busiest ERs in the province should shut down because the level of care is unsafe, that’s scary, and the calls for help are not self-serving.

The health care system is failng us. And it’s largely a staffing problem, but it goes beyond that.

As I’ve written many times, it’s the whole approach to health care. I’m not a doctor, but I spent much time in and around hospitals in my younger days. So I have at least an inkling of the issues.

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We can throw all the money we want at the problem, but unless we spend it as part of a new overall plan to deal with health issues, it’s wasted. It’s going to take a lot of time, and governments can’t continue to throw chunks of money for new facilities to save their political skins without thinking of the long term.

We don’t have the political leadership to lead the charge to provide new hope. Leaders who can work together to cross party lines and make the tough decisions necessary.

We’ve only seemingly been able to do that in wartime, when our way of life was in danger. Well, let me tell you, folks, we are in a war right now. It will take the best of all of us to get through it.

Can we put aside all the political BS, the union squabbles over who gets the higher ground and the hierarchy of the civil servants more worried about covering their backside than doing what needs to be done? Probably not, but maybe a seed gets planted somewhere that doesn’t get trampled underfoot and grows to provide a bit of hope in what has become a very dark situation.

I’m Doug Collins and that’s One Man’s Opinion.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.