Letter: Where is public/community health in the restructuring of health care?
By Letter to the Editor on November 27, 2024.
Dear editor, Public Health Units have been one of the pillars of health care since the Public Health Act was passed in 1907 in Alberta. Public Health is distinguished from other components of health care by two underlying principles: a focus on the health of the population as a whole instead of on individuals and a focus on the promotion/protection of health and prevention of disease/injuries rather than treatment. It is essential and efficient in keeping acute health-care costs down, preventing many costly hospitalizations and premature deaths. It is a very important component of health care and contributes to the overall well-being and longevity of all Albertans. The UCP is looking at where restaurant inspections will fall in their new structure. Restaurant inspections are only a minuscule portion of public health. Public Health employs Medical Officers of Health, Public Health Nurses, Environmental Health Inspectors, Health Promotion Specialists, Speech Therapists, Nutritionists, Dental Hygienists, Sexual Health Nurses and Early Intervention Workers. Just a few of the services they provide are: communicable disease control, immunizations, prenatal/postnatal education, postpartum/newborn support, addressing healthy environment factors (air, water, safe housing, food safety), encouraging healthy life styles ( nutrition, exercise, tobacco cessation etc.) speech therapy, preventive oral health programs for children, early intervention for children with developmental delays and school health programs. Where will all these services, plus numerous others, be placed in the new system? Having an effective efficient and modern Public Health plan is an important contributing factor for a healthy Alberta population. Public Health has been and continues to be faced by many challenges, such as a large and growing burden of chronic disease, significant outbreaks or threats of outbreaks of communicable disease (eg. COVID, SARS, West Nile) and changing environmental factors that have an effect on health (climate change, air and water pollution, conspiracy theories.) Public Health and clinical medicine are indispensable partners in a well-functioning health system, critical to both individual and population health. We need a government and health minister with the qualifications, knowledge and experience to fully understand the complexities of our whole health-care system before making radical changes to it. Gerri Renz Medicine Hat 12-11
It’s no secret that Smith wants control of everything so she can have complete control like dictators want to do. While she spreads her lies about Trudeau stealing all our money it’s a well known fact that these Reformers are helping the rich steal our oil and corporate tax wealth, and it’s not happening in Alaska and Norway is it?