(rdnewsNOW file photo)

By Josh Hall

countering claims

Emergency doctors say city councillor wrong about them being ‘muzzled’ over COVID-19

Nov 26, 2020 | 5:30 PM

A group of 21 physicians who make up the emergency room team at Red Deer Regional Hospital says it unanimously disagrees with comments made this week by City Councillor Buck Buchanan.

During a meeting this past Monday (Nov. 23) where council carried third reading for a bylaw making face coverings mandatory in all indoor public places and vehicles, Buchanan made comments about doctors being muzzled and the public not getting the information it should about COVID-19.

Buchanan said he’d talked with a local emergency room doctor who told him as much.

Asked to elaborate on his remarks, Buchanan talked to rdnewsNOW about ICU beds, and said his understanding from the conversation was that carpet fibres could cause a COVID-19 test to be positive.

“At the last meeting, they said we had 70 ICU beds and that we’re at 70 or 80 per cent capacity,” the councillor explained. “Well, he [the unnamed doctor] says those are things being set aside by the province right now, and we actually have 800 ICU beds. He says being at 70 or 80 per cent of capacity is just not true.”

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Buchanan says he isn’t anti-mask, adding that conversations like the one he had with the unnamed doctor following a council meeting on Nov. 16 led him to change his mind on the masking bylaw and ultimately vote against it this week.

In a letter to rdnewsNOW, Buchanan, Mayor Tara Veer, City Manager Allan Seabrooke and hospital site leaders, emergency physician Dr. Mike Weldon writes, “The views of the unnamed Emergency Physician in this article do not represent the views of the Red Deer Regional Hospital Emergency Department.”

Weldon says, “The Red Deer Emergency Physicians Group has open access to all pertinent COVID-related information, and our members are free to express their opinions without constraint. We also have full confidence in the integrity of the local and provincial COVID-19 diagnostic testing and reporting system.”

Dr. Weldon says he and fellow physicians at Red Deer Regional understand the toll COVID-19 is taking on people’s physical, financial and emotional wellbeing, and that they see it every day in their patients, co-workers and families.

“We want to make it very clear that the threat of COVID-19 is serious. Without hesitation, we endorse the local and provincial public health measures as outlined by Dr. [Deena] Hinshaw and the Central Zone Medical Officers of Health, as well as all public health recommendations available on www.alberta.ca.”

Weldon adds, “We encourage the public to follow these guidelines, to use 811 if in doubt, and to remain vigilant in protecting each other from the known harms of uncontrolled viral spread.”

RELATED: City councillor suggests doctors ‘muzzled’ from speaking out about COVID-19