Letters, July 31

Of heart attacks and wait times

Shortly after midnight on July 17, I experienced heart attack symptoms, which I recognized from an earlier heart attack 27 years ago.

Paramedics arrived quickly, at about 1:30 a.m. They were very professional and caring. I arrived at St. Boniface Hospital at about 2:30 a.m. and after a blood test and vitals I was in the waiting room at 3 a.m. We were told the wait-time was 16 hours.

The room was not quite full of mostly elderly people. While waiting, I was impressed that a nurse was doing the room, talking to people, taking blood pressure and offering snacks and water. At about 6 a.m. I had another blood test. By 8 a.m. I was in an examination room — within five hours, not 16.

By 10 a.m., after tests, it was determined that I had had a minor heart attack. After X-rays and the visit of the cardiologist confirming my heart attack, I was admitted and scheduled for an angiogram. I was on the ward at 11:30 a.m. At 12:15 p.m. I was taken to the CAT lab, had an angiogram, a stent was installed and I was back on the ward at 1:30 p.m. This was all done on the same day — five hours waiting, five hours for treatment.

I was on the ward until discharge on July 20 at 2 p.m. Prior to discharge, a pharmacist went over all my meds and prescriptions were sent to my pharmacy. My doctor then reviewed all that had been done and I was given a copy of everything. While in the hospital, the meals were fine, tasty and warm. I feel this was excellent service.

However, there is a downside. When I arrived, an acquaintance had been in the waiting room already for 12 hours; I saw him wheeled by while I was in examination. So, he was waiting some 18 hours. Not right.

My observation is that the medical services are excellent — the waiting period is terrible.

There must be a solution to this. This is not the high-cost part of the system. We are constantly told that the health department and minister are working on this, but no solution is offered.

If money is the issue, I venture to say that if those waiting were offered a wait time of two hours instead of 16, they would gladly pay. For those who cannot, our social safety net has many ways to help those in need. Maybe the wrong people are looking for solutions. Possibly the health people are overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem to the point their minds get closed to answers. Maybe someone independent with no bias, or a recent patient, should observe the overall process of arriving at emergency through treatment and discharge.

There are many wise people available to review our health-care system. Maybe we should try something radical. Even by mistake we will learn something about something that may improve our service.

Peter Washchyshyn, Winnipeg

Raising the highrise alarm

Re: South Osborne highrise gets green light (July 30)

I feel for the residents of South Osborne who failed in their bid to stop a 10-storey apartment tower in their neighbourhood. My Lord Roberts residential community is starting to look like a tower apartment and condo community/transit community because of rapid transit.

The first of two 20-storey towers is under construction along the rapid transit line. Why is it that developers can bypass bylaws that restrict building height in residential communities? One 20-storey tower with parking for almost 200 cars in Lord Roberts, soon to be a second tower, have obviously bypassed numerous bylaws. Why have them? And why do ‘transit communities’ need hundreds of parking spaces? Any response from the city?

Rennie Bodi, Winnipeg

How about equitable bracket creep?

Re: Bracket creep: A stealthy tax increase (Think Tank, July 29)

I do think the Canadian Taxpayers Federation identifies an important issue, which is that no longer indexing income tax brackets is indeed a tax increase. However, I also think the CTF misses a much bigger issue which can be illustrated using the table on page seven of its report.

As per the numbers in the table, for someone earning $30,000 in 2026, no longer indexing would result in a tax increase of $13 or .04 per cent (percentages have been rounded) of annual income. For someone earning $200,000 the tax increase would be $55 or .03 per cent. The total tax increase to 2030 in percentage terms would be 2.3 per cent and 1.4 per cent respectively.

What these numbers tell me is that the biggest concern should be how those with the least income are the most negatively impacted in terms of percentage of income. So, what I think the provincial government should do is say that it is going to revisit indexing with the intention of making the income tax system more progressive and thereby fairer.

Everyone should be invited to be part of the conversation and process including, of course, the CTF.

Gerald Farthing, Winnipeg

Run, run away

Re: Sect appeal (July 25)

MaryLou Driedger brings up the line that explains why Lori Klassen’s Mrs. Klassen character will never run out of material. When we have a problem, she says, we tend to run away — “to Mexico or Paraguay.”

We do. My own people ran in 1874, from the steppes to Manitoba, which is why there is a Woodard writing to you from Finland with Steinbach in his family papers.

And that is the secret of Lori Klassen’s act. She opens the Free Press looking for the Mennonite connection and always finds one — because we scattered in every direction available. The running away is the joke’s supply line.

A recent example, offered as tribute from the far end of the diaspora: a Paraguayan named Joshua Dürksen is currently racing in Formula 2 and serving as a development driver for Mercedes. His parents come from the Chaco: that is, from the colonies founded by families who left Manitoba in 1927, and by cousins who arrived directly from Russia in 1930 and 1947. He measures the world at 300 kilometres an hour. Four generations ago, the same surnames were measuring it by ox-cart, at walking pace, looking for somewhere quiet.

Mrs. Klassen could get a week out of that, and the accent would come free.

Ms. Driedger is right that running away is our failing. It is also why the newspaper always obliges. The failing and the punchline are the same fact.

David Woodard, Tampere, Finland

Tender mercies

Re: Saying goodbye to a friend I never met (Think Tank, July 29)

Thank you, Pam Frampton, for your wonderful tribute to our friend, Hedie Epp.

One of my students once started a poem: “My mind seems to tie ribbons around moments/ those that allow me to go back/ to discover the truth of what was meant to be …”

Thanks for sharing your little gifts in your descriptions of your relationship with Heidi. We, too, have our moments of sadness and we appreciate you articulating so beautifully some of what we feel.

Henry Schroeder, Winnipeg

Moment of clarity

While inching my way through city traffic the other day, it occurred to me that Hollywood had inadvertently come up with the perfect film title to describe the street repair schedule in Winnipeg this summer. The movie was Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Richard Kidd, Winnipeg

Act now, not later

Re: It isn’t ‘just the weather’ (Think Tank, July 30)

Erna Buffie makes a solid case for action in her piece.

That said, and to use her words, “What’s to explore? Just do it,” could just as easily be applied to many facets of the decision-making approach at the City of Winnipeg.

Debbie Ristimaki, Winnipeg