Red Deer doctors demand hospital upgrades

A group of Red Deer doctors is demanding provincial health leaders move ahead with a major expansion of the city’s hospital, a facility they say is plagued by persistent overcrowding and a lack of specialty programs.

Surgery delays, an overtaxed emergency department and the absence of a cardiac catheterization lab are among a long list of deficiencies putting the health of central Albertans at risk, say the physicians, who are taking their fight public.

“This is something that has been in the making really for years, because we’ve always felt central Alberta wasn’t getting its fair share when it came to health care infrastructure and programs,” said Dr. Kym Jim, an internal medicine specialist. “We have decided the public needs to know about the issues we are facing.”

Jim said a dozen or more doctors are organizing a “state of the hospital” address on Tuesday afternoon in Red Deer, where they will make the case the region has failed to receive the investment it deserves.

Compared with some Alberta communities, Red Deer’s health facilities are relatively modern. While the main hospital building opened in 1980, three additions to the site were completed in 2005, followed by the new Central Alberta Cancer Centre in 2013.

Nonetheless, the doctors say facility space and program funding has not kept pace with massive population growth in the region in recent years. Jim said the Red Deer Regional Hospital is now the major referral site for a population of at least 350,000, helping to make it the fourth or fifth busiest hospital in the province.

An Alberta Health Services report completed in 2015 said the 370-bed hospital had an immediate need for 79 new beds, an expanded emergency department, a handful of new operating rooms and other upgrades to provide proper patient care.

The report noted that surgeries have been frequently postponed due to a lack of available beds to house patients following their procedures.

Alberta Health Services provided an emailed statement saying it is currently involved in long-range planning for the central region to determine what health services will be needed in the next 15 years.

“Our central zone leaders recently met with the Red Deer physician group and shared an update on the planning activities,” the statement said.