have, it’s life-altering and it’s absolutely astounding.”
Anderson added Maiti Nepal puts out an annual report defining their goals and accomplishments through the year, and also lists groups which have funded Maiti. Among the groups who donated was Rotary International, an organization Anderson is a member of.
“That organization doesn’t give money to philanthropic efforts without vetting them and without the confidence,” he said. “With all of that, we agreed they would be the recipient of our first cheque.”
Anderson said he reached out to the organization by email and built a rapport before travelling to Kathmandu. In April 2014, he boarded a plane armed with a cheque for $2,500 and an eagerness to experience Maiti Nepal with his own eyes. He says the first thing that struck him about Maiti Nepal was the care and respect they had for the women and children in their care. Before he was able to enter the compound, a member of the organization’s board of directors had to verify his identity and he was told all cameras had to be put away out of respect for the women on site.
“It meant a lot to me that’s the level of heart they display on a regular basis.”
Anderson says during the trip he met with directors from the organization, including a brief meeting with Koirala. He toured the facility and observed the work the organization does at border crossings in the region. Workers from Maiti Nepal examine buses and vehicles and interview groups and families travelling with children. These interviews can help identify people being transported against their will.
“It’s likely fear that is keeping them in check, and these folks are extremely and exceptionally well-trained to identify that, and dive further into the conversation,” he said.
Anderson says at the 10 border crossings Maiti Nepal operates in the country, they intercept an average of one child a day.
“To know that the group we had a chance to get involved with and connect with last year intercepted some 3,500 children, the funds that we managed raise are important." ■
Fighting the health-care crisis fuels one doctor's passion
GILLIAN SLADE E
mergency departments are the barometer of what ails the health-care system and if you listen to a patient’s circumstances, a picture can emerge that cries out for a solution.
It’s often a cry that Dr. Paul Parks, Medicine Hat’s emergency physician and official spokesperson for emergency medicine for the Alberta Medical Association, can’t ignore because he is passionate about seeing the health-care system do better.
Instead of fighting fires Parks wants a long-term vision with the appropriate planning to meet the expected need.
“People should demand better,” said Parks. “We are already operating at high efficiency in a system that is grossly over capacity.”
Parks gives an example: A woman brings her elderly mother to the emergency department with an acute infection that requires antibiotics.
Medicines at the assisted living facility where she lives has all prescriptions dispensed in Calgary and there is a three-day delay.
“Any medication I prescribe, that facility will not be able to give her for three days,” said Parks. “And then the catch-22. If I give them a prescription to get filled, the facility will not dispense them.”
The daughter had to care for her mother in her own home for three days so she could start the medication immediately.
“Certain facilities have certain restrictions,” said Parks noting the patient could get considerably more ill in those three days. “Some things are centralized just to make money and a profit and it doesn’t make sense. On the other side it is about what resources the facility has to make it work.”
If there was no family to provide care for three days the problem is compounded. Parks can’t admit the senior into an acute care facility that is already overflowing just to deliver medications that anybody can take themselves at home.
If the patient and family have robust support and are financially wealthy, there are lots of options.
“Those people will often fair well regardless of how
well the system is working,” said Parks. “In Emerge we see that marginalized population. The system
does not work well for marginalized people a lot of the time.”
In January, the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital was at 110 per cent capacity and patients were being held in
Dr. Paul Parks is an emergency room physician at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital.
the emergency department because there were no beds in acute care.
That’s in part related to the number of seniors waiting for placement in a care facility. The beds in hospital cost 10 times or more than a bed in a care facility.
“If we had accountability to build in the right area we wouldn’t be wasting money and taxpayers dollars by caring for people in the wrong place,” said Parks.
It needs a long term vision and forecasting for years in advance so that planning and construction of facilities takes place before the spaces are required.
“That long-term planning is the frustration. That prospective planning is out of our hands. We entrust our resources to politicians,” said Parks. “It is a political decision. Inadequate planning has major ramifications downstream in the health- care system.”
We have to have transparent benchmarks and data - as simple as a report card, said Parks.
“These benchmarks are internationally accepted and we know are meaningful to the patients and families as they go through the system,” said Parks. “We have to demand that they publish the true data that tells us how we are doing and then explain what the plan is to make it better.”
Without that data we are in a system that is giving out money and hopes it’s working.
Parks suggests there are strategies to address issues in the early stage, without a long waiting list, to avoid costly medical treatment later. That would require thinking ahead rather than putting out fires as issues occur.
Perhaps it is also time for physicians to recommend treatment rather than the patient demanding what they think is best, says Parks. That would save money on tests that are not strictly necessary.
What scares him is that prosperous Albertans will start to demand and receive private health care. Contrary to popular opinion that will not free up the system for those who can’t pay, said Parks. It is more likely to attract the best staff and what will remain for those needing the public system will become sub-standard.
“It will actually exacerbate the situation,” said Parks who considers his passion a “professional duty and role.” ■
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41189689•03/31/15
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