Olds and Sundre physicians are getting closer to forming a Primary Care Network, Olds councillors were informed August 22 at their regular meeting.
Dr. Steven Turner, site chief at the Olds Hospital and Care Centre told councillors that Olds and Sundre doctors are still trying to determine the types of services that would be offered through the network. One of the services under discussion is making Olds a rural destination for obstetrics.
The network could include dieticians and other types of lifestyle services such as managing diabetes and occupational therapy. The network would involve all types of different professionals such as nurses, dieticians and others all under the supervision of a physician.
Turner said all the details on developing a PCN have yet to be worked out, but that physicians would be meeting this week to further investigate the types of services that would be offered and the staffing that would be needed to make the PCN work.
Turner said currently the discussion is wide open on whether it would be an Olds-Sundre network or whether the group would attach itself to a larger one.
As a result of Olds now having a full complement of 14 physicians, Olds College and the lodges now have dedicated clinics at those sites a few days a week each. Dr. Allan Hoeve said one of the ideas being considered for Olds is a diagnostic “centre of excellence” which would use the Fibre to the Premise technology. As long as the equipment was here, the images could be sent to Red Deer or Calgary to be read by specialists, Hoeve said.
Additional staff and equipment have also been added to the hospital to accommodate additional surgeries being done in Olds, Hoeve said. The west wing of the hospital has been opened up to accommodate patients, who oftentimes go home the same day.
The surgical program, initiated by Alberta Health Services to help clear up backlogs, will soon be expanding in Olds to five full days a week from the three half-days of operating room time. The plan is to start additional surgeries this week.
“We will see a number of orthopedic surgeons and general surgeons, particularly coming to the site to do work here that will … remove that work from Red Deer and the expectation is then that these longer and larger cases that may require patients to stay over, there'll be an increased number of those happening in Red Deer,” Turner said.
Turner said the PCN would lease another space in town, as the current clinic is beyond its capacity to house physicians.
“We are managing, but we don't have room for expansion,” he said.
Asked by councillors what the process is for meeting the future needs of the community by expanding beyond the 14 doctors currently in town, Turner said expanding is under control of local physicians.
In an interview following the presentation, Turner said some of the details of the PCN will be worked out in the next three to six months. Asked what services the PCN could include, Turner said those details are also still being looked at.
“We have a long list of things that we have on our wish list, and one of the things that will have to happen in the next month is to be able to identify those things that we can provide given the budget that comes along with one of these primary care networks. There's certainly a strong desire to bring a chronic disease management program. There would be support for that in terms of counselling,” and additional nurses, Turner said.
Turner said retaining doctors in town is a matter of setting up an environment in which they feel comfortable providing the types of services that they want to provide.
“I think one of the … best efforts at retention for physicians is a vibrant community that has good education and some good recreational activities and Olds is certainly moving in those ways … that is probably helping as much as anything. We certainly appreciate the effort the attraction and retention committee (has done) in keeping our interests in mind,” he said.
Coun. Harvey Walsh, council's representative on the Physician Retention and Attraction Committee, said he was optimistic that health care in Olds will improve greatly in the future.
“Basically, we're looking at creating a community where doctors would choose to come. You have to offer a variety of things to attract them…. How do we retain what we've got and actually make it better … so that it becomes a community of choice for physicians,” he said.
Walsh said setting the community up as a destination for certain types of services makes a lot of sense.
“Whatever the town can do to facilitate that, I think, we (should). It's nice to see (physicians) looking toward the future and how we can maintain and enhance this. It's all very positive,” he said.
