Dr. Daniel Nagese talks about the lack of beds in Alberta's rural hospitals, why they're being cut, and why this is happening. He also talks about how the government is creating a shortage in rural Alberta.
00:00:00.000Good evening everybody, it's Chris here from the Whistle Stop Cafe near Alberta.
00:00:13.000Sorry we're a little bit late. We had to roll an airplane into a hangar and get everything all packed up.
00:00:21.000The reason I wanted to do this livestream tonight is over the last little while I've told you guys and girls
00:00:26.000that we want to do our best to bring you incredible information and we want to seek out the truth,
00:00:34.000we want to seek out the people involved in the things that are going on right now
00:00:40.000and we want to hear the information right from that person rather than relying on somebody else's podcast
00:00:47.000or somebody else's webpage. So, what we did is we got in touch with Dr. Daniel Nagese.
00:00:54.000And as most of you know, Dr. Nagese, he got himself in some hot water for doing what he knew was right,
00:01:05.000which was treating his patients to the best of his ability and making sure that they got better.
00:01:16.000But HS didn't like that. So, now just like me, although for different reasons, he's in hot water.
00:01:24.000But, he did what he knows is right and we wanted to make sure that you had the opportunity to see that,
00:01:31.000yes he does exist, yes this happened, and we're going to let him let you know why he did that and what it's all about.
00:01:41.000Well, you know, I think people really have to look at the big picture, and we're talking about the really big picture.
00:01:49.000Never before in western medical history have doctors been prevented and banned from prescribing a medication
00:02:00.000for something the medication wasn't initially created to treat.
00:02:07.000Whether it's minocycline to take care of strokes and reduce brain damage after strokes,
00:02:12.000or aspirin after a heart attack. That was a discovery because aspirin was originally a painkiller.
00:02:20.000But again, until this COVID-19 situation happened, doctors could prescribe any drug off-label.
00:02:31.000And it was an agreement between the patient and the doctor that this is something you could try and see if it worked.
00:02:41.000And as a patient, you're part of that decision-making process. In fact, as a patient, you're the most important part of that decision-making process.
00:02:50.000But now, thanks to Alberta Health Services and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta,
00:02:59.000you don't have that choice as a patient. You can't even have a discussion with your doctor where your doctor has the freedom to treat you as best he knows.
00:03:11.000So, we just returned from a trip to rural Alberta. We won't say where. And it was to discuss with communities what they could do if they had problems that AHS was no longer serving their community.
00:03:31.000And as someone who's worked in rural Alberta since 2015, I hear the same story over and over again.
00:03:41.000I go to a community and they used to have a full-service hospital with a general surgeon. They used to deliver babies. They used to have plenty of beds.
00:03:53.000And after decades of Alberta Health Services management, these formerly full-service hospitals all over Alberta, they lose their surgical operating room time.
00:04:10.000Then they lose their obstetrics capabilities. And then they start losing beds. And even since 2015, since I started working in rural Alberta,
00:04:22.000I've seen beds closed every year. I go to the same few places multiple times year after year after year in small places.
00:04:34.000And I see places go from 25 beds down to 20 beds down to 15 beds. And in this pandemic, I've seen a few of the places I go to regularly cut down to 10 beds.
00:04:47.000And this is all under AHS. We had a good discussion with communities about what they could do to try and stop the squeeze they're getting from AHS.
00:05:03.000How the hospitals that used to be full hospitals are being reduced and cut back and no longer able to serve the communities.
00:05:15.000So I have a question for you. In the newspaper and in the media, what you hear these days is, we have this severe bed shortage because of unvaccinated people. Is this bed shortage new?
00:05:33.000I think seeing the escalation of beds cut in rural hospitals, that's the reason for the bed shortage.
00:05:44.000Beds are cut. And if you cut enough beds in rural areas, then the patients eventually have to get sent to urban areas.
00:05:52.000So the total number of beds, from my observations in rural Alberta, is the total number of beds is being cut every year.
00:06:03.000Now are they being cut because we had too many or are we creating an inadequate situation in our hospitals?
00:06:08.000You know, you could argue that by cutting beds in summer, because fewer people get sick in summer, you're creating a bed shortage in winter.
00:06:20.000And some of these rural hospitals, they've been stable for decades.
00:06:25.000And then in the past two decades under AHS management, what's an acceptable number of beds in the summer is inadequate to deal with regular flu seasons.
00:06:39.000I get it. So here, here's something that really bothers me about what's going on with you and how you're being treated.
00:06:46.000So as we've seen over the last couple of years, our premier, if any of the people in his organization, be it the MLAs, staffers, CA, presidents, whatever,
00:06:58.000if they speak out, he drops the hammer on them and he makes them fall into line.
00:07:05.000It doesn't matter if what they're doing is right or wrong.
00:07:07.000Now what I'm seeing is doctors, and you're not the only one, there are others just like you, standing up and saying,
00:07:14.000this is wrong, we need to do something different, and this is what we can do.
00:07:19.000The same thing they're doing all over the world.
00:07:21.000But here, AHS is actually gagging doctors and nurses, telling them that they can't speak out about these problems publicly,
00:07:30.000and if they do, they're going to suspend them or take away their jobs.
00:07:35.000So to me, to know that AHS has removed the relationship that I have with my doctor, and they've taken that relationship and placed it within the organization, that really bothers them.
00:07:51.000People I've never met, they don't know my situation.
00:07:53.000People I've never met, they don't know my situation.
00:07:54.000Your choices as a patient are being removed by doctors you've never met, who are in administration.
00:08:03.000And the big question that I have, and probably a lot of people are watching, why are they doing this?
00:08:10.000And we don't know what they're thinking, we don't know why, but I think it's a question that the general public needs to start asking their elected representatives,
00:08:19.000their doctors, anyone involved in healthcare, why is this happening?
00:08:24.000And they need to be asking their bosses.
00:08:26.000Because if we are in a situation where either people with people's egos or paychecks are getting in the way of proper patient care,
00:08:34.000we've got a problem, and we need to deal with it.
00:08:37.000So, on that note, I'd like to say thank you, and probably on behalf of 99% of the people who are watching,
00:08:44.000for standing up and doing what you know is right.