Alberta’ s Minister of Health Sarah Hoffman says she’ s gained a first-hand understanding of some of the Lac La Biche area’ s healthcare challenges that will factor into decision-making further down the road.
Alberta’ s Minister of Health Sarah Hoffman says she’ s gained a first-hand understanding of some of the Lac La Biche area’ s healthcare challenges that will factor into decision-making further down the road.
“I’ ve been on the job for a couple of months now and I definitely am aware of some of the struggles here,” Hoffman said. “Unfortunately, there are struggles in a variety of areas in Alberta.”
Hoffman paid a visit to the William J. Cadzow Healthcare Centre last Tuesday. Along with hospital officials and local dignitaries, the minister toured the hospital and the dialysis bus that’ s been parked outside for the past three years-and caused no small amount of consternation in the community in that time.
“It’ s clearly not an ideal situation,” Hoffman said after boarding the bus to see its inner workings for herself.
Before being shown around the facility, the minister met with hospital administrators, local politicians and MLA David Hanson. Mayor Omer Moghrabi credits Hanson with being the driving force behind the rendezvous.
“I’ m incredibly impressed that we had her show up this soon,” Hanson said. “I pushed it pretty hard in the Legislature and obviously it didn’ t fall on deaf ears.”
During the meeting, Moghrabi and Deputy Mayor John Nowak each spoke about the Lac La Biche hospital’ s ongoing quest to become a regional hub for medical services, complete with a proper dialysis unit and a full range of diagnostics services.
The mayor says the local hospital already plays the part of medical hub for the region, since the next-closest healthcare facilities are all long distances away.
“This is the centre of (Alberta Health Services) Zone 7 and I think they understand that,” Moghrabi said. “They were nodding their heads (during the meeting).”
Hanson says that, with notorious highways like 63 and 881 running through the region, Lac La Biche’ s healthcare centre needs to be ready and able to handle serious cases.
“It’ s a hub for northern Alberta. It’ s very important that we maintain it. We need to make sure that Lac La Biche is prepared for anything that might happen,” the MLA said. “I support any expansion that we can see, especially in the Lac La Biche area.”
Hoffman says she didn’ t mind visiting Lac La Biche at Hanson’ s urging, even though the community is situated in a Wildrose Party-held riding.
“I’ m responsible for healthcare for all Albertans and when I know there’ s a healthcare need in a community, I want to have an opportunity to gain a greater understanding and address it moving forward,” she said. “We’ re doing this tour (of healthcare facilities) throughout Alberta. We’ re connecting with communities and I’ m really proud that this is one of our early stops. There’ s good work happening all over the province and there’ s needs all over the province and I think it’ s important that we have a government that’ s in touch and aware of that.”
While the meeting and tour concentrated on healthcare concerns and shortcomings, like the dialysis bus, there were more positive moments as well, the minister says.
“We got to meet some staff who have been here for 25 years and some who have been here less than five,” said Hoffman. “It’ s neat to see the mix and how many professionals are attracted to work in Lac La Biche. The rate of physician recruitment and retention does not seem to be a problem here. You don’ t always hear that in rural Alberta.”
The dialysis bus is one of the hospital features that stakeholders near and far are keen to see improved. Lac La Biche County Council has been vocal in lobbying for improvements to the bus, especially in recent months as more and more problems with it have emerged.
Accessibility is one problem. Reliability is another. Several weeks ago, ongoing maintenance resulted in the bus’ water supply running low during a dialysis session. The cramped bus has also had its share of mechanical problems, some of which have required patients to seek treatment elsewhere.
The bus was introduced in 2010, after a heavy lobbying effort on the community’ s part. Originally, it was a “mobile dialysis unit,” roving between communities in northeastern Alberta, but it was permanently parked in Lac La Biche in 2012.
Hoffman says she realizes the bus is a bandage solution, but decisions on where to build new infrastructure will be made based on statistical evidence as well as her first-hand looks at challenges.
“This is some of the qualitative evidence, being able to see and experience and get to know some of the patients and the staff working,” she said. “Also we need to look at some of the numbers, what the demand is in different parts of the province. I’ m really happy that the five spaces that are here on the bus currently are an adequate number of spaces to meet the needs of the dialysis patients living in the area. I definitely appreciate the thorough conversation and the information that was provided.”
Moghrabi says he and other County officials intend to keep pushing for an indoor, full-time dialysis unit.
“This is a hospital. It deserves a permanent structure,” he said. “If you have the will to do something, you can get it done,” he added, noting that it might yet take some time for a better solution to be arrived at. “I think they’ ve heard us. We’ ve gotten into a better position now. Really, it’ s still going to take a year and a half to two years and I’ m being optimistic.”
Hanson says the bus won’ t be viable even as a bandage solution forever, so the government needs to take a longer-term approach to regional healthcare delivery.
“Something has to be done, so we might as well have a permanent solution,” he said.
Hoffman says Alberta Health is working on creating a comprehensive capital plan for building new healthcare infrastructure and installing new equipment across the province. In some ways, the government is catching up and filling in gaps that were left open by the previous government.
“I think that infrastructure and deferred maintenance have been some of the challenges that have been taking a lot of our money that could be focused on other facilities,” she said.
Details on healthcare investments-and how the Lac La Biche community will or won’ t benefit from them-should be finalized later in the government’ s term.
