The UCP government is facing criticism from the NDP over thousands of surgeries that have been cancelled in Alberta.
Health Critic David Shepherd says the slow response to the recent wave of COVID and the overwhelming of hospitals has been why many surgeries have been put off.
“A near collapse of a healthcare system, exhausted healthcare workers, and its lead to the cancellation of cancer surgeries, pediatric surgeries, life saving surgeries that people have been waiting for months and had cancelled on days notice. It’s a rough situation right now and we really need to do some work to come up with a plan to make sure that we can get things back on track once the COVID numbers come down.”
Shepherd was on the Trending 55 Hot Seat and says proper funding is needing for public surgery spaces.
“Making sure that we are giving them the money they need to continue to operate as around the clock if necessary to put the staff to work, and ensure that we have the staff available. Anesthesiologists, surgeons, nurses, all of those folks. That’s another challenge that we have. This government has been fighting with, gone to war with doctors, gone to war with anesthesiologists, and trying to cut the wages of nurses.”
You can hear the full interview below.
– Kyle Moore, Trending 55 Newsroom
