OLDS — Alberta Health Services (AHS) needs to rethink how it calculates how many doctors Olds really needs, due to several unique factors, chief administrative officer Brent Williams says.
Those factors include the number of retirees in town, the population of special needs residents, the fact that Olds Hospital and Care Centre acts as an overflow facility for surgeries not performed in Red Deer, and the fact that younger doctors don’t want to work the same hours their older colleagues do -- or have done.
Williams also gave council a heads-up that a councillor needs to be chosen to sit on the re-established health care attraction and retention (A & R) committee which is still in formation but expected to be fully operative soon.
That committee is a re-formation of a similar committee that used to exist under the umbrella of the former Olds Institute but has been dormant for several years.
During a summation of health care issues, Williams reiterated a point he made to the Olds & District Chamber of Commerce earlier – that there’s a waiting list of about 2,600 Olds and area residents who have no regular doctor.
Central Alberta AHS officials have noted that Olds has 17 doctors and have said that’s plenty for the 12,000 resident “catchment area” (the town and surrounding area), as it works out to 740 patients per doctor.
But Williams said that ignores the fact that 15 of those 17 doctors are often busy at the Olds Hospital and Care Centre and thus have little time to see patients.
“Our patient per doctor ratio is far lower than 740. It’s closer to 600,” he said.
In addition, Williams said on average, Olds has an older population than many other Alberta communities because it attracts many retirees.
And Horizon School attracts many families that have disabled children or adults.
Thirdly, Williams said the Olds Hospital and Care Centre acts as an overflow hospital for patients who would otherwise be obtaining surgery in Red Deer. Consequently, those patients – not from Olds and area – still need to be cared for post-operatively.
“I think all those things provide great value to our community. Being a community where seniors want to retire and having a large special needs community that we can accommodate here and having an active hospital,” Williams said.
“So trying not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but that has a huge effect on the capacity of physicians as well.
“So our ask of AHS for this is to recalculate the physician needs, based on these very real statistics that exist right in front of everyone’s eyes and to realize the long waitlist has a significant effect on the quality of care.”
Lastly, Williams said hospital privileges -- the ability to personally admit and take care of one's patients in the hospital -- “is a very huge attraction and retention piece.”
Doctors want the opportunity to work in clinics as well as have hospital privileges.
However, Williams said according to local health-care providers, many younger doctors don’t want to work the 90 hours or more a week that their older colleagues have.
So he said an ask for AHS is to work out some new system where doctors could work in clinics, make use of hospital privileges and yet not work as many hours; perhaps by sharing duties.
“This is a very specific Health Care Act or issue, so the town’s ask of AHS has been largely to work with local physicians on a facility-specific model in Olds that allows for greater access for hospital privileges to local physicians,” he said.
Williams said that could “provide a scope of practice that is desired but also does not take away from the clinic hours that are being adversely affected; the 2,600 patient waitlist.”
Williams said a plan to create a dialysis unit on the east side of Olds hospital has been “on the books” for many years.
“It’s on the AHS capital plan in fact,” he said, “but it just has not been actioned or funded by Alberta Health for builds.”
He also said too much politics has been played with regard to announcements like upgrades to the medical device reprocessing (MDR) unit at the hospital. It sterilizes surgical equipment.
“It was announced by the NDP government, I believe in 2016. It’s been re-announced two or three times since then. Most recently, last week it was in the paper.
“That’s the same project being either just again, politically re-announced or running out of money and having to add an extra million or two here,” he said.
“Obviously the need is to just finish the MDR unit and move on to another project and that should be fairly straightforward, one would think.
“So the overall town’s ask is to prioritize the capacity issue of the Olds hospital to better serve central Alberta and provide staff there with the support they need to overcome the stretched capacity and ongoing demand.”
Williams said in addition to Olds council, a request is being made to Mountain View County council to also choose one of its own to sit on the A & R committee.
