Health minister says High River hospital will reopen
Minister declines to give date for return of services
The province’s health minister is reassuring High River residents the flood-ravaged town’s hospital will eventually offer the same services it did before the disaster.
But Fred Horne was unable to say Thursday when Alberta Health Services will reopen the facility’s shuttered emergency room, surgical theatres and in-patient ward.
“We’re going to restore the health services the way they were in operation prior to the flood incident,” Horne said in an interview.
“AHS will determine how quickly and which ones they bring back in and it will be done in a phased approach, which is certainly reasonable after a disaster of this scale.”
The minister’s comments come in the wake of demands this week by the facility’s medical staff that all services at the 107-bed hospital be immediately restored.
“We’re worried this hospital is going to become a public health and long-term care facility,” said Dr. Sarah Bell-Dingwall, “and that we’re going to lose the acute care that we have been able to offer.”
Ailing patients were evacuated as far as away as Edmonton a month ago when the southern Alberta town was inundated. The provincial health authority has started providing urgent care services and immunizations at the facility recently.
And an AHS spokesman said Thursday that sick seniors will start returning next week when a long-term care ward with 75 beds is scheduled to reopen.
But Don Stewart could provide no timetable as to when the hospital would staff its 32-bed in-patient ward so it can again provide emergency care, deliver babies and perform surgeries.
“It is too early to say,” Stewart said in an email reply to questions.
“Much will depend on how quickly the town recovers from the flood.”
While the hospital primarily served the town of 13,000, it also handled some of the overflow of elective surgeries from facilities in nearby Calgary. In a three-month period prior to the flood, nearly 350 procedures were completed by the facility’s medical staff or visiting surgeons.
Wildrose leader and High River MLA Danielle Smith said Horne needs to provide the hospital’s physicians with a clear timetable quickly or risk seeing some leave town.
“They want to know when are we going to start doing surgeries, when is maternity going to return, when are our chemotherapy patients going to continue getting services at the hospital?” Smith said.
“If you delay for months, it’s going to change the decisions some of these doctors make.”
While some physicians have to make the difficult decision about whether to rebuild their own homes and clinics so they can stay in High River, Bell-Dingwall said patients are also wondering whether to stay as they are forced to travel as far away as Medicine Hat for cancer care services.
“It’s anxiety-provoking for everyone,” she said.
With AHS officials unable to provide a firm plan, High River has been rife with rumours the hospital’s $17.1-million budget would be cut and portions of the facility mothballed.
“I don’t know what incorrect information is being circulated in the community,” said Horne, “but I can certainly assure the people of High River as their minister that we’re committed to bringing back all the services and we’ll do that as quickly as we can.”
Despite Horne’s pledge, some area residents said their concerns’ weren’t assuaged.
Katrina Dodge, whose mother survived cancer after receiving chemotherapy at the hospital, is still planning a protest Friday outside the facility where she expects to be joined by dozens of people demanding the minister and AHS provide a clearer timetable.
“Our town is deteriorating as it is,” Dodge said. “If people don’t know when the great hospital they had will fully reopen, they will hesitate to come back.”