When Donna Bennell's 70-year-old mother was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer years ago, it was a shock to all who knew the energetic Albertan: she did yoga, took vitamins, jogged, and avoided sugar, flour and red meat. She ran her own business. And she died within weeks of her diagnosis.
To add insult to injury for the grieving Bennell, she too was diagnosed with cancer; stage 4 triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). But it was comments from the then-campaigning Danielle Smith that stung more than anything, Bennell wrote in a recent letter to the Premier, when she heard Smith say people sometimes cause their own health issues, and that, "Stage 4 cancer could be prevented through good living."
"The words crushed me," Bennell said, adding she never got a response from the Premier's office to her letter. "I cried that day, the next and the next. If I know anything, I know the cancer was NOT my mother's fault. Her comments show an ignorance and cruelty--she's got power, privilege and good health, but has no empathy for what others have to deal with. The government and opposition must hear from many of us who are afraid of what comes next for healthcare in Alberta under her leadership."
Bennell says in her own cancer treatment at the Cross-Cancer Institute, she's never seen the same doctor or nurse twice. Surgery has been scheduled and cancelled without her knowledge, so a call about a post-operative follow-up appointment came as a big surprise.
"They're good doctors and nurses--run off their feet. They all want to do a good job, but care is suffering," Bennell said. "There's no one main point of contact, so it feels like I'm falling through the cracks."
"My experience has been beyond the pale. I worry about what is to come, when we have a leader who bases public health on her personal opinions. You can't treat human services like accounting," she added.
NDP Health Critic David Shepherd says he hears stories like Bennell's all too often, pointing to the rollback of doctor's wages pre-pandemic and treatment of healthcare workers ever since as factors that have led to the current crisis in healthcare.
"People are demoralized. Danielle Smith comes in and her priority isn't helping people like Donna, it's to offer sympathy for those who've chosen not to get vaccinated against COVID," said Shepherd, also pointing to the uptick in cancer diagnoses being delayed because people couldn't see a doctor, or didn't have a family doctor to go to at all.
"Albertans feel personally attacked, and they need empathy from the leader, along with a strategy for dealing with critical staff shortages, health care recruitment and listening to and working WITH frontline healthcare workers."
"Donna feels weak, shut out of the system; Danielle Smith is not governing for the good of all Albertans; she's responding to her base," Shepherd said.
It's a similar story of feeling helpless and shut out for Jacqui Bayne, when a call for an ambulance for her mother, an active 92-year-old who lives in an independent living facility, was diverted from 9-1-1 to 8-1-1 in early February. Though AHS defends its decision to transfer the call for help to ease the burden on emergency services, it is investigating what happened in this case. Still, Bayne says the badly-managed transition put her mother at risk.
"The experience was stressful and degrading; my mother experienced chest pains, trouble breathing and is still in hospital now, after I took her to emergency myself where she spent the entire day slumped over in a chair before she was admitted," she said.
Lori Sigurdson, Alberta NDP Seniors Critic, says Danielle Smith's plan to fix the health care system has instead resulted in 'endless chaos'.
AHS executive director Jim Garland said people who are determined to be in a non-urgent situation often have to wait longer for an ambulance, and having calls transferred to 811 could mean faster care.
Shepherd says transferring 9-1-1 calls to 8-11 is a band-aid solution.
"We have a $13 billion surplus, and we need collaborative solutions for health care," he said. "The priority must be to get care for Albertans when and where they need it."
Bayne says she doesn't know what she'll do if faced with an emergency for her mother again.
"It feels like health care in the province isn't just broken, it's absolutely shattered," she said.
