Dear Editor,
The article by Heather Colpitts [Campaign to cut unneeded ER visits coming to 91原创, 91原创 Advance, Jan. 17] with statements attributed to Dr. Neil Barclay was infuriating.
If 20 per cent of ER visits are unnecessary, I would suggest that Fraser Health investigate why, instead of coming up with a new way to turn those in need away?
I have spent time in ER waiting room, 18 hours waiting to see a doctor when I had excruciating pain to be sent home with a couple of pills only to return the next day to get scheduled for an abdominal operation; an eight-hour wait then leave unseen when my blood pressure spiked to stroke zone.
So whom do I see in the ER waiting with me for hours? Mothers with crying babies and children, workers with broken arms or bleeding, overdose victims, dementia suffers and their family, victims or perpetrators of crime led in by RCMP. Folks with nowhere else to go at night, on weekends, holidays or when the family doctor is full up for weeks.
Dr. Barclay鈥檚 ecstatically proclaimed program will reduce ER visits but does not fix our broken health care system. We need more doctors, nurses, LPNs, techs, equipment and availability, not less. I would love to hear a response to that need that remediates it, not just a bottom line fix.
Bryan Frazer, 91原创
