Public has a right to know

It was with great interest I read Gillian Slade’s story

(South Zone AHS ready for what comes) in the April 16 edition of the News. I was especially distressed however, to note the comments as made by Katherine Chubbs, chief officer for Alberta Health Services south zone. Where

Ms. Chubbs stated, “We have to be prepared for things to happen very quickly,”, and she gave information advising how many ventilators the province had in total, 509 now and 761 at then end of the month, there was no information about how many we have, or will have at the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital, the hospital that must be prepared to deal with all of South Eastern

Alberta, and perhaps part of South Western Saskatchewan. Further, when asked more than once, Ms. Chubbs would not say how many COVID-19 patients there currently were in the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital, stating, “We are not able to share specific patient information unfortunately.” She then suggested the reason was because of “privacy regulations.” I call BS.

Ms. Slade didn’t ask for names, just numbers.

Also, in the same edition there was a story on the COVID-19 outbreak at the Kearl oilsands operation north of Fort McMurray. Here Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province’s chief medical officer of health was interviewed. Dr. Hinshaw had no problem advising that three workers tested positive and six others had been tested and were isolating. That information was no state secret.

Sorry Ms. Chubbs, the citizens of South Eastern Alberta have a right to know how many people are being treated locally, and other information, especially including how many ventilators do we have here now, and how many may be expected later. Don’t tell us AHS south is ready, prove it. These are serious times and the public has a right to know what is going on.

Ken Montgomery

Medicine Hat