A full-day visit to the Lakeland on Friday by Alberta Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky and his parliamentary assistant, MLA Raj Sherman, has left local officials sounding upbeat on the health front.
Zwozdesky spent the morning in Cold Lake and the afternoon in Bonnyville. He heard a long list of concerns as well as some thank-yous as he toured hospitals in both communities.
The minister even encountered protesters in Cold Lake.
The protesters were missing in Bonnyville, as Zwozdesky took the opportunity to tour the Bonnyville Health Centre and discuss everything from the facility's cramped lab and operating rooms to the successes of the primary care network and the nurse-practitioner program.
“The minister (gained) a better understanding of what we do and the scope of our practice,” said Alex Smyl, executive director of the Bonnyville Health Centre, which is run by Covenant Health, but funded by Alberta Health Services.
Smyl noted that while some areas can only get a one-hour visit with the man in charge of the province's highest spending department, Bonnyville landed three plus hours of the minister's time.
Zwozdesky used that time to hear from hospital staff, pharmacists, ambulance service officials, town and MD politicians, hospital administration and health professionals.
In Bonnyville, the minister toured much of the hospital with BHC chief of staff Dr. Guy Lamoureux and Lucie Knudsen, the nursing manager for the hospital's operating and emergency rooms, specialty clinics and central sterilization area.
The tour gave Zwozdesky a feel for how cramped the hospital can be when it's busy, Smyl said.
The note-taking minister engaged staff in conversation throughout, before meeting with local officials in a fairly crowded boardroom to ask and answer questions.
His willingness to send an aide scurrying off for more information at times did not go unnoticed by Smyl or others who met with Zwozdesky.
Among those present were Bonnyville-Cold Lake MLA Genia Leskiw, who arranged for Zwozdesky's trip to her northeast Alberta constituency.
Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland said Zwozdesky appeared to have genuine concerns about the state of Cold Lake's hospital, and that “staff really laid it on the line” to the minister about the challenges faced at the facility and in Cold Lake.
While Zwosdesky didn't pull up at either venue with a truck full of money, he did address funding concerns and special items such as money to recruit physicians.
He said cash to help with recruiting is available once again through his department.
Physician recruiting costs have been taken on by the MD of Bonnyville, which allocated $63,000 to assist with physician recruiting earlier this year.
Zwozdesky told his boardroom audience the government has already moved to wipe out the $1.3 billion deficit previously by AHS. Funding for the current year has been bumped to $9.0 billion, and there's a commitment to increase funding by a further 4.5 per cent in the following two years.
“There's dollars there now to make good on the plans,” Zwozdesky said.
He said he wants a five-year funding plan to add stability to healthcare planning and service delivery.
“It'll have greater predictability and long-range planning than ever before,” he said.
While Zwosdesky talked about global funding issues, he stayed away from commitments on such things as ongoing funding for Bonnyville's nurse practitioner - a key component of the patient care network in the area.
The Town of Bonnyville allocated $77,500 to pay for the position back in November. That's cash the town doesn't want to have to dish out each year. In fact, Mayor Ernie Isley asked Zwozdesky not only to fund the position in the future, but to pay back what the town has already committed to it. The minister made no promise, but asked several questions on the issue to probe for more information.
Zwozdesky also didn't offer any commitments on what might happen with the proposal to expand and renovate Bonnyville's hospital. The expansion/renovation plan that was submitted to the province last year has an estimated price tag in the range of $50 million (see related story, page 8).
Zwozdesky didn't decree any additional help would be on the way for the successful patient care network project. The initiative has been a significant help in providing better access to healthcare in Bonnyville despite doctor shortages.
“We love the PCN... We want to move forward with it,” Lamoureux told Zwozdesky.
The problem is the program is running out of cash.
“We've basically used up our reserve and we're going to start laying off nurses next year,” Lamoureux warned.
He said local officials don't want to see good nurses in a successful program being laid off in 12 months. The program employs six nurses.
Lamoureux also said Bonnyville's nurse practitioner has been a huge help in better and more cost effectively treating patients with chronic conditions.
He said the BHC is a leading edge facility in some ways, and that its team wants to keep doing what it's doing well. He added the hospital is very well supported by the town and MD.
A key concern is maintaining enough of a critical mass of physicians to keep attracting more doctors, Lamoureux said. He told Zwozdesky Canadian resident doctors that have shown interest in coming to Bonnyville have backed away from the community because they're not interested in working as many hours per week as existing doctors, but would come here if there is a critical mass of physicians to spread the work out.
