The end result of our "compassionate" healthcare system

Well, I won't talk much about this for obvious reason, but a close relative of mine has become paralyzed this week.

What caused her disability was...Alberta Health Services. The care facility that she was in decided that some relatively major surgery was required. So, about 2 years ago she went in and got the surgery.

It didn't work well, and she's been barely able to use her lower limbs ever since. After numerous specialist visits in Edmonton, she was told last week that the damage caused by that surgery is permanent.

Permanent.

She'll never walk again. She can mostly stand now, but that will soon fade away as well. Barely into her senior years, rank incompetence has taken away her quality of life.

Did Alison Redford do this? Was it Gene Zwozdesky's redesign of AHS? Was it Stephen Duckett's management? Chris Eagle's management? Not enough government money in the system?

No. It was the system. Not the specific system that was set up by the evil Conservatives to intimidate doctors into accepting their management style. The system in general, our stupid ineffective disaster which is "public medicare."

You the taxpayer paid for this. You helped cripple her. I did too. Perversely, she did too. Her life has been destroyed, but it doesn't end there. The botching of this "major/minor surgery" has now resulted in almost a dozen followup surgeries by top specialists, the mostly highly trained (and paid!) in the province. You or your grandfather's long wait on that list? Some of the spaces ahead of that were taken up by her, trying to fix reckless damage other parts of the healthcare system left behind.

Oh, you can fight it in court. Maybe (maybe!) even collect a bit of a damage. But the system continues. This doctor had little reason to give a quality standard of care: the bar is set high, the risk minimal. Who ultimately pays if she wins in court? You do. Who pays if she doesn't. You do.

What a racket you've got going here, Alison. Raj isn't the only loose cannon that's been running around with a stethoscope.