Dear Premier Smith
Poly Tics . Social Studies
Subject: FW: Cancer Patient Experience
FILED UNDER CORRUPT ALBERTA MEDICAL TYRANNY
SENT VIA E-MAIL JAN.4, 2023
Dear Premier Smith,
Let me first congratulate you on your recent political progress and the meaningful steps your government has taken towards a more sovereign Alberta. I voted for you based on the commitments you made during your campaign, in particular the need for health care reform. There is no doubt that Alberta Health Services and The College of Physicians and Surgeons have lost touch with the absolute necessity of The Hippocratic Oath and sensible, humane, and cost efficient health care. I will be following and supporting your leadership.
I write to you today of an ongoing matter with Alberta Health Services that continues to be a source of aggravation and stress as I approach the end stages of my cancer care. I have attached the original letter of concern that I have submitted to AHS twice now to little or no response, until today when I went to leave the Tom Baker Cancer Center from what will be the beginning of yet more radiation and chemotherapy treatments. The latest progression of my cancer is now threatening my esophagus, trachea, and larynx. This causes difficulties with eating, drinking and breathing. That ‘the authorities’ and ‘gatekeeper’ would insist that patients with respiratory difficulties should be required to wear breathing barriers is appalling, if not criminal, but this is another, though related, matter.
I followed up with AHS Patient Relations this week and spoke with yet another patient care representative. I have asked for a refresh and escalation of the matter. Since receiving a trespass notice from AHS properties in December of 2021, there has been no disclosure, discussion or mediation. The security assaults have been random at best but today I was met by three peace officers to escort me from the premises using an outdoor route to my car which was parked approximately two blocks from the Tom Baker Center. I recorded today’s events as I have in the past. This is not health care. I pose no threat to other patients or staff. I am courteous and kind to my care providers even when they are clearly acting unethically or inhumanely or are grossly misinformed. I recognize that they are heavily indoctrinated and motivated by fear like so many have been over the last years. That so many health care providers with a conscience and discernment have been unjustly treated is a great tragedy. Any of my sins and indiscretions of the past took place during the insanity of the previous UPC/AHS COVID alliances and overreach and were a response to the discrimination and oppression you spoke of during and after your leadership campaign.
My concern is that AHS has taken on an authoritarian and omnipotent approach to their business model and, in my view, feel themselves immune from respecting the rights and freedoms we are all to share equally under the Canadian and Alberta charters. There is also an element of privacy act violations with regards to how my personal medical information is being used to harass me as well. If I had some viable, non-allopathic or non-corporate medical options I would gladly use them. Being that I am a born and raised Albertan and have paid into the system, even when it is proven to be broken and sick, I still insist on fair and ethical medical practices, transparency, bodily autonomy and informed consent.
I ask for some mitigation, intervention, and understanding with my situation. I would like this harassment and bureaucratic, authoritarian overreach to stop as I seek out what may very well be my last treatments. I would be glad to have a conversation.
Can you help?
Regards,
Al Neitsch
Original Letter From 2021,2022 –
Attn. AHS Patient Relations,
Surely someone at AHS, The Foothills Hospital, and especially the Tom Baker Cancer Centre knows of the numerous studies that clearly indicate that psychological stress is a major factor in cancer treatment outcomes.
I was diagnosed with Systemic Peripheral Cutaneous Non-Hodgkin’s T Cell Lymphoma with spinal cord involvement in 2017 and have had a long record of treatments since then. I feel that I have had excellent care by some exceptional doctors and nurses during the last five years but only until the onset of the ‘pandemic’ response from AHS and whichever agencies direct the provincial government in their handling of patient care. I am currently listed as Stage 4, Palliative, Refractory with my disease and will be starting yet another round of radiation treatment shortly.
I wish to file a complaint against all those responsible for my non-medical mistreatment, segregation, discrimination and detention that has caused me anxiety and psychological stress during several visits to AHS facilities for prescribed cancer treatments. I am also concerned with violations to my right to privacy and how my personal health information is being used by AHS or their stakeholders and partners to commit this mistreatment against me.
Apparently, I have been ‘trespassed’ from AHS facilities for offences that have not been fully disclosed. I have some idea of them but I have not met with any AHS agents to discuss the matter to see if the situation can be remedied. There was no hearing or formal charges laid, yet I am being subjected to psychological stress as some form of punishment. I am not sure if the sanctions against me are lawful or not but I fully intend to pursue the matter.
Every appointment requires me to prepare myself with documents to back up my reasons to not comply with ‘mandatory’ measures that I have reason to believe are harmful to my already compromised health. I feel that I must always be ready to record any interactions at AHS properties because my intake, reception, and ejection is always so inconsistent. Sometimes I am met by uniformed security before I even get to my appointments. Sometimes I am met by uniformed security when I am finished my appointments, to be escorted from whatever building I am in. Sometimes I am only partially escorted from the premises. There might be one or two uniformed escorts. Three times now, I have been escorted by non uniformed staff. On July 18, I allowed myself to be let out of an exit that required me to walk twice the distance to my car than it took for the initial trip in. I ended up having to re-enter a building only to be confronted by the check-in gauntlet. Sometimes I try to avoid detection and the check-in gauntlet by using evasive routes. I am in daily pain. My thyroid has recently stopped working. I suffer from fatigue and muscle and joint pain. This mistreatment is all inexcusable torture.
I am making every effort to live my best life and to eke out any medical advantage. The application of the Hippocratic Oath to whatever care may be remaining would be welcome. I am sure that the good doctor would have been more forgiving of an occasional pamphlet or sticker placed out of frustration and under duress.
I now find my AHS interactions stressful and hostile and I wonder if this mistreatment will continue until my disease or treatments kill me. Whatever the ultimate cause of my death, the stress of my non-medical, and clearly bureaucratic mistreatment does not facilitate good care or healing.
Sincerely,
Alfred Neitsch
C287148
These are some links to some of many studies that cite the relationship between stress and cancer outcomes.
https://www.cityofhope.org/living-well/is-there-a-connection-between-chronic-stress-and-cancer
https://med.stanford.edu/survivingcancer/cancer-and-stress/stress-and-cancer.html