I read your article in the paper about the July 14 meeting where Dr. Kevin Worry took another roasting.

I refer back to the article in the paper some weeks ago where Dr. Robin Laughlin stated that Alberta Health Services was forcing he and Dr. Pam Edwards to move out of the High Prairie [Hospital]. I think, personally, if AHS was ‘forcing’ them to move it would be a lot longer move than just out of High Prairie.

It is the AHS, not the High Prairie Health Services. Change doesn’t come easy especially to older people. I am one so I know. What may feel like a personal attack to a certain individual could just as easily be an attempt to meet challenges that have arisen in the health care system as it exists today for the future.

Doctors have been very used to having it their way and that is changing. An attempt to target two particular doctors would be, I think, done more directly and discreetly than changing province-wide customs just for them.

The community health model is an attempt to respond to changes that we are not even aware of. I personally have my misgivings but there is little doubt that things could not go on as they were. Technological advances are creating amazing possibilities for people in need, and perils.

As well, there is the simple fact that time is making us rethink so much of the old knowledge. I am reading a book I borrowed from the local library called Are Your Prescriptions Killing You? I am going to fork over the $30 Canadian to buy it.

To top it off, I was inappropriately medicated by several different doctors, repeatedly over a long course of time. It began with a doctor down south who knowingly gave me so many iron shots that my blood quit clotting, then sent me to get my veins stripped. He was followed by others.

There has to be some sort consequence for this sort of behaviour. Add to that the changing population demographic and the impact that is having on our medical care which is not always obvious. Doctors who write prescriptions without thinking can really impact a person’s life. When we start getting older, and for people who are born with chronically painful conditions great care has to be taken. I have had doctors offer me Demerol, Percoset, muscle relaxants and any other number of pills. None of these are get out of jail free cards. Each and every pill and the moment of relief they offer comes with a cost.

NSAIDS and other anti-arthritic medications are actually proven to stop the body from laying down new cartilage. NSAIDs damage the gut lining and can lead to gastrointestinal bleeds. Narcotics … enough said. Muscle relaxants. I didn’t like them and even had a pharmacist cancel a prescription that was on my file.

“You don’t want to do that,” he was laughing to himself and shaking his head.

These drugs are thrown at us, we are conditioned to seek them. I do not wholly blame the doctors for this. They now have five minutes to work their miracles.

But I certainly do not apportion ‘drug seekers’ the amount of blame that they often are given. Something has to change with this situation, and it’s going to hurt.

The owners of the High Prairie Medical Clinic have to bear in mind they are not the only ones who are having their plans foiled. I thought I would be going for trail rides in the mountains in my seventies like my mother did, that is not going to happen. I was going to have a couple of small businesses. That is not going to happen either.

Invoking charges like bullying can be a two-way street. As respected members of the community they have to take care as well. Their word carries more weight than that of others.

Dr. Edwards’ statement that she had more to say but she wouldn’t say it there is a tease. Implication is an open ended game. It leaves things to hang in some nameless air. People extrapolate on those kinds of statements from the fertile ground of their fears and imaginations.

Of course, there is more she could say. There is more that AHS could say. There is more that I could say for that matter, and other people as well. Staying out of the pit where this all becomes a blood sport and concentrating on the issues at hand is more important than the power struggles between a couple of stubborn old medical practitioners nearing retirement and a government that has a bright new paradigm to tinker with.

It would be unreasonable in the long run to expect the entire province and the health care system to put its plans on hold so that the High Prairie Medical Clinic can run its self chosen course, particularly if AHS has already insisted that other clinics bend the knee and won.

Being the only one to get your way may be unpleasant when the other kids find out about it.
Eva Sartorius,
High Prairie.