Friday, October 30, 2009

Immunization Fiasco

This is a Rant - My spouse, a kidney transplant patient, auto-immune suppressed, went to a local Calgary clinic at 10am this morning. The line was about 3 blocks long, the temperature about zero. After being told that they might not get in, then told they had a chance, after 4 hours, she was told to go home, since they wouldn't get in before the early closing time of 3.30 (This was in spite of posting messages on the internet saying they were open until 8pm; when asked why it was closing early, the people were told, ask Ron Liepert!). She was surrounded by young mom's with small children, elderly with walkers; all freezing with no chairs, no washrooms, no nursing facilities for these moms.

Based on this, I have several suggestions: a) Mr Liepert - please stand in line for your innoculation for at least 4-5 hours, outside, then go back to your planning. b) Apply triage: ONLY those who are high risk should be allowed to be innoculated for the first few days., OR c) at least have people who go up and down the line and sort out those of high risk or those who find it hard to stand in line (e.g. elderly, frail, those with assistive devices, pregnant mothers, women with small children) and put them either at the front of the line or in a 'streamlined' line. d) Release the serum to doctors of specialty clinics who would then arrange for their high risk patients to be innoculated, e) Release the serum to local doctors who would arrange for their high risk patients to be innoculated. I'm sure that the medical community could come up with many other ideas to speed up this process. WE ARE NOT CATTLE - WE DESERVE TO BE TREATED WITH DIGNITY AND RESPECT!

This fiasco certainly shows a lack of planning, critical thinking and ability to priorize by those who are in charge of our health system. Imagine what the ramifications would be if the swine flu was actually virulent?

Perhaps this is what happens when a populace allows business and financial people to run a province? Wouldn't it make sense to have those with medical background to administer our health system rather than politicians? OR (horror of horrors) could this also apply to education? Wouldn't it be better for education to be administrated by educators rather than financial people and/or politicians?

UPDATE - 2nd day - My wife has now been in line for a total of 9 hours; she began at 7am this morning! Still no innoculation and SHE IS A PRIORITY! I now update my recommendation: Mr Liepert, stand in line for 10 hours, outside, with no services, THEN go back to the drawing board and do a better planning job (Perhaps you could humble yourself to ask those who might have experience in this field?)

UPDATE - 3rd day - We did get our shots - 1o hours of waiting. I listened to Ron Leipert this morning on CBC, he's chosen to "think only of the positive and what has been accomplished", and has taken no responsibility for the hardships that those at high risk went through. Thinking only on the positive does not allow for any of the (negative) issues raised to be addressed - this is a concrete example of a choice to NOT critically think about an issue by considering all factors and changing approach accordingly. Liepert's view is another example of the ministers of Alberta Government as an unfeeling, hard-nosed group of politicians who are unable to think critically, plan well nor put themselves in the shoes of the populace.