People are finally paying attention.
Earlier this week, a panel of three well-connected Red Deerians spoke for an hour on a CBC show called Alberta At Noon about the health-care problems that exist in our city. The live show was held Tuesday at the Red Deer Public Library, with about 70 people in the audience. The panel included Dr. Kym Jim, an internal medicine specialist at the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre, Red Deer Mayor Ken Johnston and Sue Beatson, president of the Red Deer Hospital Chapter of the United Nurses of Alberta.
Just days before that, the Society for Hospital Expansion in Central Alberta held a rally in City Hall Park with about 100 people in attendance.
While those numbers aren’t earth-shattering, Dr. Jim said that people are finally paying attention to the problem and the public is getting engaged.
Jim explained that while many believe Red Deer was left off the NDP’s priority list, he isn’t sure that Red Deer was ever even on the list at that point.
“The real recognition that we had a problem in Red Deer dates back to ‘08 and then 2012 when we thought we were number three on the list,” Jim said.
In the session on Tuesday, he said the decades-old problem at the hospital is one that just continues to exacerbate every day it goes unchecked.
The provincial dollars — $1.8 billion towards the expansion — has it on a timeline of construction starting in 2027-28 and completion by 2030-31. The Alberta NDP said last week, shovels would be in the ground no later than 2024. The project is currently in the design stage, with upwards of $320 million over the next three years to help develop plans for the project.
“The plan that has been proposed… certainly takes into account most needs for the hospital. The challenge is that’s eight to 10 years away from fruition. We need a plan to get us there,” Jim said.
The problem is multi-faceted.
First, in the short term, the hospital needs help addressing its capacity issues. There is simply not enough space to care for the number of people, some 480,000 that the regional hospital serves.
“We are taking people from all over Central Alberta on any given day…The referral area is no less than 350,000, probably closer to 400,000. The 500,000 number is close to half the population of Saskatchewan. It is a jurisdiction that is greater in size than many of the Atlantic provinces,” Jim said.
“One begins to get an idea of the scope that is covered in Red Deer and that has been one of the challenges over the years, is to have people understand that — (people) in government and positions of power in Alberta Health Services.”
Jim also said that Central Alberta has seen somewhere between 10-15 times less hospital infrastructure funding per capita compared to other regions over the past 10 years.
He mentioned that Red Deer has lost close to 20 specialists over the past three years. Having a Cardiac Catheterization Lab is one thing that he pointed out that could have moved the needle on keeping those specialists and attracting other ones. Those specialty clinic spaces or surgical spaces are something that attracts doctors from across the country.
If infrastructure upgrades had been made at the hospital six or more years ago, this problem largely wouldn’t exist.
To address these short-term needs, a task force needs to be set up and the city/ doctors need a seat at the table. They want quarterly updates on the project and a point person directing the project. Someone that can answer questions about the project and be in constant communication.
“We can see the vision and the structure of what’s coming, we still need a bridge to get us there,” Johnston said.
He wants this to be publicly funded and he wants a recognition or an acknowledgment of the short-term problems the hospital faces. The UCP hasn’t made any progress in that regard.
In recent years, a lot of the solutions have simply been a shuffling of the deck, rather than a concrete plan to address the shortfalls.
Jim called all that water under the bridge on the panel. But I think it’s important to recognize where you’ve come from in order to chart a path forward.
I think political leaders, particularly in our region and leading up to an election, need to recognize those shortfalls and be greater advocates for our community. They need to shine the light brighter on the problems in their home region or nobody else will. Local community members can only scream so loudly for so long.
Beatson, who has been a nurse for over 25 years, said that the problems are downloaded onto the frontline staff.
“We are all very passionate and our passion is patient care and when you’re not able to provide that — it’s morale distress, burnout, mental illness and we lose more (nurses),” she said.
Hearing Beatson speak about the trouble from that perspective makes your heart absolutely break. These nurses should be some of the most respected professionals in our province and here in Red Deer, they struggle every day to give the care that they know they are capable of. It doesn’t mean they don’t do their best and it certainly doesn’t mean they don’t do an excellent job. There just certainly seems to be a sense that they know how much better it could be if the issues they faced were met with a more concrete short-term solution.
The mayor also said he hopes that as someone who has seen firsthand the difference health professionals make at the Red Deer Hospital he can help be a powerful advocate for change.
Johnston said “the mayor has to be the, loudest, most plugged-in voice for their community when it comes to issues like quality of life.”
There were plenty of other people in the room last week, including former nurses and doctors that spoke about the shortfalls over the decades and how they believe the problem has swelled to its current state. Those people are also passionate, caring and ready to make noise on this issue until they see action.
People are tired of being brushed off in this community — tired of being told “maybe next year” or “it’s coming.” They want action on help at the hospital and they want it yesterday.
It’s time for those in power to stand up and listen.
Byron Hackett is the Managing Editor of the Red Deer Advocate.