Free Health Care In Canada Is the Best!!!

[DRTYFN]

BUWAHAHAHA!!!!!

Superbug forces Alberta hospital to shut
Dirty equipment raises disease fear in Edmonton suburb Vegreville
Alberta health authorities have closed a Vegreville hospital to new admissions and most visitors after the spread of a bacterial-resistant superbug and the discovery that some patients may have been exposed to HIV and hepatitis during surgeries performed with dirty tools.
The equipment sterilization room at St. Joseph's General Hospital was shut down Friday ? though it was first directed to do so more than one month ago -- after a recent audit found bits of flesh and blood left on tools and inside scopes used to examine patients and take tissue samples.
Those tools weren't properly scrubbed and brushed inside and out before being sterilized, and were then used on other patients, inspectors discovered.

"We believe the risk is very low," said Dr. Gerhard Benade, the medical health officer for the East Central Health Region.
Fewer than one per cent of patients who had certain surgeries are at risk of having been infected by a blood-borne pathogen, he said.
The list of specific surgical procedures involved is still being determined.
"At this time, we're not aware of any patients who have become infected," Benade said. "We have the responsibility to err on the side of caution."
The patients most at risk are those whose skin or mucus membranes were broken during examinations of organs such as the bladder, bowel or stomach.
Already, investigators have identified 80 people who may have been exposed during surgeries. Investigators are examining patient charts back to April 1, 2003, when the health region east of Edmonton first began contracting services from St. Joseph's hospital. The hospital is run by its board of governors.
Calls to board chairman Orest Berezan went unanswered.
Benade said the hospital was first told to shut down its central sterilization room Feb. 13, after a regular audit found discrepancies in cleaning standards. When Benade discovered work was still being done in the room, he inspected the hospital Friday and issued his closure order that evening.
"It was not that the surgical equipment wasn't sterilized at all," he said. "It was that it was inadequately sterilized."
The hospital has stopped doing all out-patient day surgeries indefinitely. While people can still go to the emergency department for help, they will be sent to nearby hospitals if they need to be admitted.
"We will identify every single individual that might potentially be at risk and we will go to great lengths to touch base with them," Benade said, noting some people will need counselling and blood tests.
Steve Petz, president and chief executive for East Central Health, said he's also concerned about increased rates of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a virulent superbug, in the hospital.
While the MRSA issue has no apparent connection with the blood pathogen contamination, both point to improper cleaning and sterilization, as well as inadequate training of hospital staff, said Dr. Karen Grimsrud, the deputy provincial health officer for Alberta Health.
Between mid-January and mid-February, seven patients at St. Joseph's contracted the antibiotic-resistant bug, though none got sick, had skin lesions or blisters or pneumonia. Normally, the hospital sees only two or three cases a month. The high rate suggests that hospital workers transmitted the bug to previously unaffected patients by not washing their hands properly, Grimsrud said.
Lawrence Harrison, 49, said he wouldn't have been dropped off at the hospital had his son been aware of the contamination. Harrison has lupus and went to St. Joseph's because of hip pain Tuesday.
He said he had been expecting to have an operation there soon for a gastric reflux disease.
"I'd be really leery at this point," he said.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/n...8c0718ab38&k=0

[Gooey Gaybob]

Got to love socialism.....and everyone thinks our healthcare system sucks.

[KenP]

Is Dennis feeling better?

[westhillsat]

Originally Posted by KenP

Is Dennis feeling better?

X2

Lucky I haven't gotten sick in Alberta or B.C. yet

Hospitals are dangerous places in any country. Avoid them whenever possible.

[DennisAJC]

These recent weeks(With the flu season and my mom's heart attack.) have made me appreciate American and Canadian hospitals. My youngest has been to both and regardless of your healthplan, the technology and service is superior in comparison to other countries.



Imagine getting sick in a 3rd world country like Africa or Oregon.

[KenP]

Originally Posted by DennisAJC

Imagine getting sick in a 3rd world country like Africa or Oregon.

Criky!! You'd be dead from a fly bite.

[Boar-Ral]

A lot of people are keen to jump on the American healthcare vs. Canadian healthcare debate, but the hospitals themselves are actually quite similar. What most people fail to realize is that the Canadian government does not own or operate the hospitals. Instead, they fund the hospitals. As an example, the two giants here are Capital Health and Caritas Health Group, who own most of the hospitals in the area. The government simply funds them. (And despite what you might hear in media bites, funds them quite well.) The difference is who is eligible for healthcare. In Canada, you do get "free" health care, whereas in the U.S. you're SOL. But most Americans have health insurance, so it is really a moot point. The only time it becomes an issue is if you are in the lower class, and while I cannot say for certain, I would expect that even an American hospital would let someone in and treat them if it was life or death. Isn't there a doctor code of ethics or something?