BONNYVILLE – The Bonnyville Healthcare Centre is among the facilities receiving new equipment as part of the province's $15-million commitment to upgrading laboratories in Edmonton and northern Alberta.
“The new equipment will ensure patients in Bonnyville will continue to have access to top-of-the-line diagnostic services, specifically equipment including a chemistry analyzer, coagulation analyzer, and bacteria identification system are the modernized laboratory equipment that will be used in the assessment of patients,” said James Anderson, site administrator at the Bonnyville hospital. “The assessments will include routine blood work, such as electrolytes, renal function, and liver function testing, to more specialized testing for blood clotting function, liver function tests, and tests for bacterial organisms to diagnose whether an infection is present.”
According to the provincial government, new centrifuges, microscopes, analyzers, and other pieces of essential equipment will help to ensure people living across northern Alberta and around Edmonton continue to have access to state of the art diagnostic and treatment services.
“With this money, Alberta Health Services will be able to modernize lab equipment in large hospitals in Edmonton, but also in smaller communities so that patients and families can get the support they need for their health and treatment journey,” Alberta’s Minister of Health Tyler Shandro said in a press release.
Along with Bonnyville, facilities in Grande Prairie, Peace River, Tofield, Westlock, Leduc, and Boyle will benefit from upgrades, which AHS will purchase and install over the next two years. It will be used for blood and chemistry work, genetic and molecular testing, and other medical and diagnostic services.
While pleased the town’s hospital will be receiving new equipment, Mayor Gene Sobolewski believes it isn't enough. Instead, to speed up testing and better serve residents, he said the province should be bringing the lab work back in-house.
“Our folks have to drive into Edmonton to get (tests) done because of the sensitivity of time frames for testing,” he explained. “But, more importantly, it’s just more convenient and it creates much-needed jobs that we have out here and we shouldn’t be sending our results to Edmonton. There’s much more risk of complication because it usually goes by ground, so say for example a traffic accident or things of that nature, and I don’t think there’s very much funding to be saved with regard to this aggregation of services to Edmonton and Calgary. I think it needs to be put back out to the centres where they can get direct testing and quickly get testing turned over by qualified pathologists so they can get information to the doctors directly.”
Sobolewski said the province isn’t listening to municipalities' concerns when it comes to healthcare.
“They seem to be going in the opposite direction and further strangulating our abilities to adequately recruit. I know I’m hearing complaints all across the board in terms of our recruitment programs and being able to get nursing staff and surgical times and things like that are still being cut back.”
