Mixed reaction from Red Deer politicians and doctors on provincial health care announcement

“I’ve read that this will be patient-focused and that they’ll make sure quality isn’t reduced, but I’ve heard those promises and claims in the past,” says Red Deer City Councillor Michael Dawe, who sat on the region’s health board for seven years until the time for amalgamation came in 2009.

“My question is how will they interact with each other? When you divide things up by function, you want to make sure they don’t become silos, where acute care isn’t talking to continuing care, for example.”

Dawe, who was also chair of the Red Deer Regional Hospital board from 1983-1994, says fundamental change like this can cause a lot of disruption and artificial barriers to the system working efficiently.

He also hopes the changes don’t impact or further delay the Red Deer Regional Hospital expansion project.

Red Deer Mayor Ken Johnston is confident in saying that won’t be an issue, noting he’s under the impression that the community will see material changes related to that project soon.

On the announcement, he says there’s a sense of excitement.

“I say that because there’s certainly a commitment here to put patients into the middle of the process and rely on frontline health care workers. There’s a great sense of anticipation that we’ll be seeing some structural change,” he says. “I also like the focus on primary care, and the goal that is hopefully achievable is that we’ll all have access to a family doctor. There’s a great deal of hope and focus on that doorway to health.”

Johnston also believes it’s a step forward for mental health and addiction, something he’s been an advocate for.

“Anything that helps primary care and helps more patients get a family doctor is fantastic. Every person should have a family doctor,” says Dr. Keith Wolstenholme, orthopedic surgeon at Red Deer Regional Hospital.

“My guess is that for my department, it won’t make much of a difference. They made a point about more local decision-making, which for Red Deer would be good. We’ve historically been left behind Calgary and Edmonton, so maybe it’ll help with resource allocation for our city and others like Medicine Hat and Grande Prairie.”

Dr. Kym Jim, internal medicine specialist and nephrologist at Red Deer Regional, has been around long enough to have seen half a dozen significant structural changes to the province’s health care system.

He says ‘enormous disruptions’ occur every time.

“Many will forget there was a shuffle three years after the amalgamation of 2009 because the new system wasn’t working. Each of those changes had the intent of making the system better, but the results have been very mixed,” says Jim, who’s also been the main spokesperson for SHECA — the Society for Hospital Expansion in Central Alberta.

“The details aren’t yet here in terms of how central Alberta will indeed be better represented in decision-making. If central Alberta is more recognized and can speak up for its specific needs leading to us getting those things, then I guess it will be a success. But I’m not confident what’s been laid out will achieve that.”

In 2008, he recalls, a needs assessment for Red Deer hospital expansion had been done, and stakeholders were close to a business case.

“Then health care got blown up in 2009, and to be very honest, that’s when the whole process of the hospital in Red Deer got lost. It was seven years where nothing happened on development. We fell off the list in 2016. In that period of time, no one in Central Zone knew who to go to about our problems,” he says.

“I echo the mayor in the sense that with the support of the public and continued push to get the project done, it will get done. I don’t have concerns of it being cancelled or anything, but I do have concerns about the process actually making our hospital work today and when it opens. This is why SHECA has called for a transition plan and a task force. Despite the suggestion that would be seriously looked at, we haven’t heard anything new from the government on those asks since the election.”

A statement from Alberta Health to rdnewsNOW on Wednesday reads, “We aren’t expecting any delays to this project and Alberta’s government remains committed to improving hospital care in Red Deer and surrounding communities.”

Part of Wednesday’s announcement was the appointment of a new AHS board, which you can read more about on our Alberta news page.

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by Josh Hall | @Vancan19

Mixed reaction from Red Deer politicians and doctors on provincial health care announcement

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