Dear Editor:
As I begin this letter, I would like to praise the dedicated staff at Lions Gate Hospital.
They are professional, knowledgeable, up-to-date, caring and continually juggling to keep things going. Unfortunately they work in a system with inadequate levels of facilities and personnel. The shortage of beds and staff is appalling in this day and age.
As a former nurse, I was amazed at how well they coped. The one anesthetist on call was managing an epidural and my nerve block following shoulder replacement surgery when he was called away on a Code Pink (baby in distress).
A single anesthetist on call is clearly inadequate in a hospital of this size.
All of the staff I was in contact with remained cheerful, pleasant and professional, which is amazing given the level of stress. Health-care workers want to give the best of care but are hampered on all sides.
It is time to update our health-care system. There has to be a fair way to get all available beds open and staffed.
Let’s end the unproductive debate about public and private delivery of health care. Increase funding? Raise premiums? User fees? Private and public options?
Let’s take a page from the world’s finest care systems and make ours the best in the world.
Marlene Russell
West Vancouver
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