ST. PAUL - Local politicians say they continue to bring pressure to bear on Alberta Health Services and the Ministry of Alberta Health in an attempt to address concerns raised by a group of St. Paul doctors at the St. Therese Health Centre last month.
The planned relocation of a general surgeon to Cold Lake from St. Paul is a symptom of a greater problem at the local facility according to the doctors. They claim the surgeon’s departure will have a domino effect that will leave no part of health services delivery at the hospital untouched and will result in doctors leaving the community.
MLA Dave Hanson said he, together with St. Paul Mayor Maureen Miller, will not be letting up on efforts to address the issues raised by doctors who claim continued requests for improved after hours emergency surgical services and increased medical device reprocessing (MDR) services have been ignored by AHS management and are at the forefront of their concerns. However, if there is no general surgeon located at the St. Paul facility, there will be significantly fewer OR hours for two local doctors whose key roles are that of anaesthetists. If they, too, leave the community, the dominos continue to fall.
“It will be success when our doctors are not putting their houses up for sale,” Hanson said Friday. “I am continually working on it, that’s about all I can say at the moment. I’m hoping we can come up with a solution where we can maintain physicians and our surgery capabilities in St. Paul. That’s very important I think to the community. I was disappointed in how it was being handled by AHS and leaving St. Paul out in the cold.”
Saying he believes they are “on the right track,” Hanson added, “ I know that Maureen is working very diligently as well with the doctors and I’m trying to meet with them as often as I can, as well as putting pressure on through the Ministry to make sure St. Paul doesn’t lose out.”
Asked how far he thinks he can push his own government to step into the fray, Hanson said, “I would want them to step in as much as they legally can. There’s certain things that they can do.”
While AHS operates largely independently, Hanson said, “I’m sure the Minister has some influence on them and I’m hoping he exercises as much influence as possible in his department. That’s the angle I’m working at right now but I’m also trying to work with the doctors and the surgeon and with AHS to see if we can come up with a solution that benefits everybody involved.”
Miller said there does appear to be some movement within AHS in recognizing the concerns being raised and she’s been told they will recruit for a new surgeon in the community. It appears the push to do so came from the government.
“According to the Ministry, the Ministry made a call or talked to somebody in Zone 8 and the next thing you know I received a call from Zone 8 saying we have great news the upper management has decided to go ahead and post this position.”
The mayor is now hoping actions speak louder than words.
“I do need to see that there is actually action involved with the announcement and how that action is going to ensure that I can keep my anesthesiologists or is it an announcement? So, I’m not finished my work.”
For its part, AHS said Thursday it is working to recruit a second surgeon to support St. Paul patients and will update the community as recruitment progresses.
“AHS connected with local physicians and community leaders on September 22 to share information and ensure that all parties are aware of the current surgical coverage plan as well as the plan to recruit an additional surgeon. We are committed to ongoing, transparent discussions with local physicians and community members,” stated AHS spokesperson Diane Rinne.
“Dr. (Iftikhar) Ahmad will continue to do surgery in St. Paul and Bonnyville, in addition to Cold Lake.” she said. “Surgical services will continue to be offered in St. Paul and Cold Lake now and into the future. We will continue to monitor local care needs and ensure the needs of patients are met.”
AHS was still maintaining Thursday that it has “not received a formal request to withdraw from hospital coverage from any privileged physicians.”
This is in direct conflict with word from the facility’s chief doctor, Dr. Francis Adebayo, earlier this month that he had received resignation letters from two doctors.
