InnisfilToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to Lakehead University's Third Age Learning series.
Lakehead University wound up its Third Age Learning series on May 10. The five-session series dealt with present and future health services with different speakers each day. It was held at the St. Paul’s Centre in Orillia.
A common thread was that the delivery of medical services has to change and it is actually being reorganized now. The aim of this reorganization is to achieve greater integration of the different services and medical records. These changes will take time and money, particularly as not everybody is willing to give up its own freedom of operation.
Furthermore, there is always the question where the required funds will come from.
These talked about changes will, in the opinion of the writer, achieve some improvement in the delivery of medical service but they will not come near to solving the existing deficiencies.
The basic fact is that there is a shortage of medical staff right through from personal care workers to doctors. This shortage can, in the long run, only be corrected by educating more people and creating working conditions that encourage people to stay in the medical field.
Both of these aforementioned items require more money. These extra funds, if we want to maintain one-tier health services, can only come through more government investment.
The government can steal from other services like education or justice or increase taxes. I suggest there is not sufficient room to cut these other services so, in my opinion, the only way to really improve health services is to increase appropriate taxes and place the money into increasing medical staff.
Konrad Brenner
Ramara Township