Alberta Health Services' infamous provincial menu and the shortage of doctors and other medical staff were top priorities when Lakeland Communities Health Advisory Council members from Fishing Lake, Grassland, St. Paul, Bonnyville, Fort Kent, Smoky Lake and St. Vincent and chair, Diana Anderson of Elk Point, met in Elk Point last Thursday.
“Are we being heard?" asked Margaret Modin, chair of Elk Point's Interagency Health Committee, as she brought forth concerns “put together as a community. We see very little change in the 21-day menu."
Modin also noted an occasion last summer when Elk Point had two days without emergency or health centre service, because staff was unavailable, lengthy wait times for hip and knee replacements that had one local man choosing to go to another province for surgery, and the lack of a respite care bed at the present time.
Along with the problems, she had suggestions for the council to take to Alberta Health Services including a return to regional administration with a board of directors for each facility, a locally administered budget, and the use of nurse practitioners “for concerns not needing a doctor, such as diabetic control."
“To whom do we address concerns about ambulance service?" she continued, noting no response to date on complaints she had sent through what she had been told were the appropriate channels two years ago.
Modin also commented that the local committee felt a retirement package given to Sheila Weatherill when she was removed from the provincial board was “obscene in a time when there is not enough money to balance the budget."
Pat Paleschuk, the council member from Smoky Lake, spoke to the 21-day menu situation, and said she was one of a group who taste-tested some of the potential additions to the diet, and although only two foods were presented, “a good feeling came out of the session. We were able to speak out against the food being served in the auxiliary hospital and continuing care. People want more made-from-scratch food, not pre-frozen and re-thermalized," she noted. “One of the staff in the nursing home said this has ruined her reputation as a cook."
The changes that are being made are “changes with the same kind of food," Paleschuk said. “Our communities are used to such good food and we want it back."
The issue has been coming up “ever since the menu was introduced," Anderson said. “Because we were used to having food cooked on site, there were big meetings. The province reviewed it, and we just got this information today."
An information sheet distributed at the meeting stated that following a review of the provincial menu program, “options for staff to accommodate local preferences as requested," included the product sampling Paleschuk attended, to a soup and sandwich option, with the site having the choice to make homemade soup if time permits. Options could also include replacing a specific entrée with sliced, cooked-on-site meat and potatoes, a dessert cart, replacing hard boiled eggs with fresh eggs, serving bulk condiments, customized vegetable selections, pancakes or French toast, replacing rice and pasta with potatoes and to “re-establish previous local vendor relationships that can assist you in meeting local operational needs."
However, Anderson said, “we're not seeing this in our area yet."
In Cold Lake, however, the food is not the most urgent problem.
Mayor Craig Copeland said he was impressed by the turnout of local residents on hand for the council's meeting. “I don't think we could get this many out in Cold Lake," although, he noted, “health is really an issue in Cold Lake. The doctors are stressed out. It was in our top five community goals to champion a change, and things are improving." He noted that Cold Lake hospital serves 30,000 to 35,000 people, including a number from northwest Saskatchewan, from the largest air force base in Canada and from a strong oil patch.
“A lot of people were using the emergency department for a walk-in clinic," he noted, due to the difficulty in getting an appointment to see a doctor. “We're about two doctors short."
The city had put up $60,000 in tax dollars, and the Hearts for Health Care group received a grant from the Rural Development Fund and held a fundraiser through a grassroots community effort to help attract doctors to the community, the mayor added.
The oil companies were also concerned with the lack of doctors, he noted. “Recreation facilities and doctors are the number one and two concerns of people moving to the area."
He would also like to have more doctors specializing in obstetrics and anesthesiology, so that physician holidays are not a concern. “Having to deliver babies in Edmonton doesn't make sense," but has been the case at times, “and support staff is just as critical. We need nurses that can deal with preemie babies. We need balanced health care. Cold Lake Hospital has the capability of being a regional health centre."
“We have to do something to recruit and train people locally," said North Zone vice president Shelley Pusch. “Other provinces have been staging rural training programs and discussions are starting to happen. We have the initiative to create more full-time positions. We need more generalized training for doctors, and less specialization, and we need to change the criteria on bringing in doctors. We're weeding out too many. There are very early discussions underway on this."
Stevem Clelland, director of Decision Making Supports with Alberta Health Services, was the featured speaker at the meeting, with a presentation entitled 'Primary care: understanding what we have heard.'
