The Community
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Volume 114, Issue 23
Press Season’s Greetings
Wednesday, December 8, 2021
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AHS meets with Hardisty community over Emergency Deptartment closure lasting nearly two years Leslie Cholowsky Editor
Hardisty and District residents had an opportunity on Tuesday, Dec. 7, to hear a presentation directly from Alberta Health Services personnel regarding the temporary closure of the Hardisty Emergency Department that’s now closing in on the two-year mark. At its peak, 86 people were on the Zoom call, including Alberta Health Services personnel. Camrose MLA Jackie Lovely spoke first, saying, “I know that there is an enormous amount of stress in the community over the long term closure of the emergency room. I wanted to facilitate the opportunity for an open and honest conversation with AHS and provide AHS with an opportunity to update the community on their efforts to day.” Janice Stewart, AHS Chief Zone Officer, started the session off by saying, “AHS has no intention of closing the Hardisty Health Centre. I know it seems with the amount of time that the emergency department has been closed, that it seems to be the direction we are heading in, but I assure you, it is not. “We are committed to reopening the emergency department and committed to restoring Hardisty Health Care Centre as the centre of health care for the
Hardisty community.” Stewart said when the closure was done, AHS had no idea it would take this long to reopen. “When something temporary exists after two years time, we understand the uncertainty it has caused the community.” Stewart said the initial closure came about as part of the whole-zone COVID19 response. “When COVID-19 ran rampant through long term care homes in Edmonton and Calgary, new rules were put in place to protect long term care residents.” She advised that since Hardisty had no way to really separate acute care and long term care staff, it was one of several sites marked for temporary closure. Stewart said when long term care residents and staff became vaccinated, there was a hope for reopening, but at that time, AHS was unable to secure the necessary staff to do so. She said then AHS turned its efforts to recruitment, saying, “Securing RNs is a priority.” Stewart added, “There aren’t that many new RNs graduating each year to fill the vacancies.” She also said, “Staff are exhausted, and not willing or able to take on additional hours. “It’s difficult to get people to relocate
‘Tis the season
to rural locations, including Flagstaff County.” When Galahad Long Term Care was also temporarily closed, and some residents and staff moved to Hardisty, Stewart said this didn’t solve the emergency room issues, because with Galahad not having an emergency department, those staff didn’t have the necessary training to reopen Hardisty. Gerard Stang, AHS Director of HR Business Partnerships, talked about a lot of new ideas and initiatives being tried to attract staff to rural locations, but some of these will take some years before they start to work. He also talked about staffing hours, which Stewart also talked about. Both said that while presently one full time RN is needed along with 3 part time RNs, that Alberta Health Services has listened to staff and tried to be as flexible as possible. Stewart pointed out that some staff don’t want full time hours, while some don’t want casual positions. “We are trying to be as flexible as possible, we can adjust FTE to make job postings more appealing to applicants.” Tony Pasich, Associate Executive Director of Central and South Zone EMS Operations, spoke about the challenges on ambulance service, both in Hardisty and other rural centres in the province.
Pasich said that a staff shortage had a big impact on Hardisty service, but said three of the four positions are now staffed, and a fourth staff member is hired and should be joining in January. The ambulance is still here, and it’s ready. He said that AHS is working hard to return ambulance crews to their own communities when they are needed to transport to larger centres, to keep rural crews moving in and out of the bigger hospitals as quickly as possible. Stewart said that AHS was also working on collaborating with other groups and entities that would help AHS pitch the Flagstaff Region as a whole, essentially helping recruitment efforts in Hardisty, but also in Killam, and Galahad. Colleen Lindholm of Rural Health Professions Action Plan (RhPAP) was invited to talk about what her group does, and she outlined a number of programs and areas where RhPAP can help with recruitment, of both staff and of physicians. Lindholm said, “If this is of interest to the community, I would be happy to come out and help.” After the formal presentation, AHS personnel answered questions that had either been preprepared by participants when they registered, or were See HARDISTY P28
LESLIE CHOLOWSKY PHOTO
With a little fresh snow on the ground this Killam homeʼs decor is just one of many beautifully decorated homes in the region.