Dear editor,

As a young woman who grew up in Maple Creek I have been shocked at what has happened to the health care system there. I found it strange when I learned that Maple Creek could no longer service pregnant women in labor and deliver babies, but thought that wasn’t too bad.
Then I started hearing and seeing signs that the hospital would be closed, including over the time that I was in town visiting my family after Christmas. I don’t know about anyone else, but I know that I have had family who were in need of health care now, not in an hour or two when they can drive to Medicine Hat or Swift Current! Things like a ruptured appendix, can become serious very quickly especially if you live in a rural area. The long drive just to get to a hospital could kill.
On top of that I understand that for many, the closest hospital is in Swift Current, and are at capacity quite frequently. I have gotten married and want to move back home one day to start my family and raise my kids in the town I grew up in, but I fear that I won’t be able to live with peace of mind knowing that if I something happens I might be too far away from a hospital to get there in time.
I have almost my entire family living in Maple Creek and area, including two great-grandparents. I understand that beds for seniors will be at below provincial standards numbers, my family and my home town deserve to have the same standards as anywhere else in the province and country. There has been an ongoing joke that I’ve heard stated for a few years now, let someone in charge go out on an ATV, break their leg just south of Cypress Hills and try to call for help with no cell phone reception. Maybe then we could see some changes in how close a hospital will be when they have to wait four hours just for someoone to find them. I want to see my home town thrive, I want to see my family continue to live there for another five generations, not be forced to live somewhere else because they have a medical condition, or because of fear that one health emergency will turn into something far more serious. Closing of small town schools, and now hospitals is killing communities, and it has to stop.

Disgruntled in Red Deer,
Heather Paish, originally from Maple Creek