Changes need to be made at Medicine Hat hospital

By Letter to the Editor on February 19, 2020.

In 2012 a wing at the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital was closed. When the addition to the hospital was built I recall arrangements were made with seniors’ facilities that had extra (respite) beds to send patients to them and also in some cases to St. Joseph’s. What about the general public?

The new addition has long hallways and big waiting rooms and offices but how many rooms for the sick who wait for hours in the emergency room or get sent home because of a lack of beds? My husband waited two days and nights before he got a bed.

The wing that closed had 36 beds. Several people I’ve talked to say the resources to run that ward will cost too much and that I need to talk to the hospital operational team. That team is a provincial committee so they don’t even realize our problem.

We have to get that wing open. I get the runaround when I try to talk to hospital administration. Speak up, because this is our problem; please write or phone. The only thing that will work is if the public does something about it.

Lorette Oddan

Medicine Hat

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