Since the tragedy at the Urgent Care Centre I have written to: the Minister of Health, with a copy to the MLA, The Mayor and the Chief medical examiner. The only response has been from the Medical examiner telling me that it was too private to discuss, when I told him that all we needed was his advice on how to prevent this from happening again, namely having someone brought to the Urgent Care Centre when it was closed and having the patient die before they could make it to a facility that was open.
Obviously the politicians are not going to help us. But there is very good news, the Mayor said in an interview that Cochrane had a hospital in 1900! Wow, before provincial politicians and before there were any medical schools. The pioneers did it themselves, and we can do it too!
Here is what we need to keep the urgent care centre open 24/7 forever!
- A voluntary non-profit organization that can collect the funds we raise and pay the staff
- Although the province doesn’t like the RCMP, we love them! We need to hire an off duty or retired constable who can work some of the night shifts. That was the patients that come for treatment and the staff can work in a safe environment between the hours of midnight and 6:00 am.
- A clerk who can check the patients into the care centre and do a high level triage, e.g. “I think that you should see this person next”
- A Physician with a Canadian license and/or a nurse practioner who would like to help out and see everything from obstetrics to trauma.
If there are people reading this who can help with what the budget should be for each of the positions for each shift, please let us know. I think that with volunteers to help with the fundraising we would not need to charge the patients. Fee for service is how the original hospital worked but I don’t think that will be necessary for one shift per day.
To the young people reading this, if you feel that you can help your fellow Canadians, please consider a term or two in politics. The country needs to change all the politicians from top to bottom. We need people who serve us, not the other way around.
Robert Cameron
Rocky View, AB
