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Health category

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Space and light make a big difference

One of the things that struck me about the rooms at the new intensive care unit at Royal Inland Hospital was how big they were. It seemed like a lot of space for a bed and a few pieces of equipment.

But then Dr. Tim Schmidt, the ICU director, explained what wasn’t so obvious: that extra space comes in handy. Equipment has to be moved around the floor. Other devices have to be brought out on booms. And of course you’ll have a number of staff in there making everything work. And the last thing want is for them to be tripping over wires in an urgent situation.

As I got Dr. Schmidt on video, I couldn’t help but notice something else: the lighting was terrible. At least it was terrible for someone trying to make a video. Sunlight streamed in from the outside, and ambient light made its way through windows in the side walls. For patients, this is actually a good thing. It lifts their spirits and helps them tell night from day. And of course you want the staff to be able to see what they’re doing.

Be sure to watch the video. Dr. Schmidt does a great job of explaining everything in just a few minutes.

Marijuana is bad for you

The fact that we have a so-called compassion club opening in Kamloops for the sale of marijuana over the Internet speaks at best to the naivete of the venture — and at worst to its deviousness.

Marijuana is bad for your health. Study after study has shown that it substantially increases your heart rate, distorts perception, creates problems for memory and learning, and leads to a loss of co-ordination. Heavy usage can lead to hallucinations, delusions, impaired memory and disorientation.

If the people who use marijuana were honest they would admit that there is only one good thing about the drug: it makes you high. If it has any medicinal effects at all, it is that getting high helps you forget about what ails you.

Compassion clubs are designed to convince the public that marijuana is actually good for you and should be legalized. Usage has become common, and there is a temptation to give in and say why not. But any government truly concerned about the welfare of its citizens will absolutely keep this drug illegal.

If there is indeed something in marijuana that benefits sick people, then let’s research it, distill it and make it the active ingredient in a drug that can be prescribed by a doctor.

Maybe it's a bizarre way of cutting down on wait times

Imagine a hospital parking system that is so infuriating that people would rather stay home and suffer than go in for treatment. It seems we have such a thing at our very own Royal Inland.

It’s only anecdotal, but I have heard from time to time of people desperately seeking help from a walk-in clinic rather than having to deal with the parkade from hell. When I recently needed minor surgery, I parked several blocks away and walked because the thought of being sliced and diced was already stressful enough.

Cam Fortems did a great job in Thursday’s paper of explaining how hospital parking works, and how it fails miserably. But the thing that really struck me was the lack of any apparent interest in making improvements at this taxpayer-funded institution. Surely, customer service should be a top priority.

I know this gets dredged up every now and then, and is routinely ignored, but we really need to start putting the screws to the provincial government to bring in locally elected hospital boards with meetings open to the public. A few citizen delegations — along with reporting in the media — might be enough to embarrass the powers-that-be into doing the right thing.