My dad, Fletcher Waldo, was in the Red Deer Hospital a few weeks ago for major surgery. We sometimes hear people complain about the Red Deer Hospital, but my dad’s received such fantastic care while he was in there.

The care he received from the nurses on the ICU, Unit 24 and 23 and his doctors (Dr. Hamilton and Dr. Singh) was exceptional. Words sometimes don’t seem enough to thank all these fantastic people. They are certainly a credit to the hospital.

There was one thing that we found surprising being at the Red Deer Hospital. It was the lack of eating facilities in the hospital for evening and weekend meals.

They do have the cafeteria open Monday to Friday until 3 p.m. And they have the Café VA open until 8 p.m. but the grill closes at 2 p.m.

They are both closed on the weekends.

They do have a little coffee kiosk that sells small items like sandwiches, muffins, coffee etc. on the weekend. We were told you can drive to restaurants that are close, but if you have a good parking space you don’t want to leave as the parking is hard to get on weekdays (it seemed better on the weekends).

Luckily our family is all in Red Deer, but it must be really hard for people from out of town who have to be at the Red Deer Hospital to be with their family members.

I would think the staff also find it frustrating when they have to work on the weekends and they cannot get a decent hot meal.

They deserve better than that.

Brenda Crandlemire

Red Deer