Local concerns with the health care system were aired on Thursday at town hall, giving MLAs the chance to hear about how the system could become more responsive to needs. Steve Young, MLA from Edmonton-Riverview and Ron Casey, MLA from Banff-Cochrane, were on hand to hear from local officials, medical professionals and members of the public.
About 15 people showed up to the event to discuss the issues, including two doctors.
Topics such as doctors needing more related professionals locally to help manage patient needs, the ambulance service, seniors' care and mental health issues were discussed.
The MLAs heard that municipalities are no longer getting statistical and other information about the ambulance service now that Alberta Health Services has taken over its operation, which is critical to find out how the service is operating locally, the MLAs heard. The fire department, which previously had a very close relationship with the former Mountain View Regional Emergency Services Commission, now has no radio communication with the ambulance service as it had before, but yet is still performing some medical assists. The MLAs also heard that since many of the ambulance drivers aren't local, they don't know where some scenes are located, effecting response times.
“Health care's a priority for everybody in Alberta, but local knowledge matters and … we need to hear that from municipalities, the rural regions, as well as the big cities, so we can have the full perspective. There's no one solution that's going to fix … or advance everyone,” Young said following the meeting.
Young said the system needs to work better and by tapping into local issues, that can help.
The impetus for the “health care conversation” was that it was a main priority of voters in the recent election.
“We need to address it. We can't continue to do things the way they've been done if people are calling for improvements,” he said.
MLAs started touring communities throughout the province about a month ago. One of the common themes that has been heard across all the communities is having timely access to proper care.
“Getting in the front door is a challenge. That's starting to manifest itself as a clear issue,” Young said.
Feedback from the meetings across the province will be collected and collated by Sept. 7 and passed on to Health Minister Fred Horne. Young said this won't be a one-time effort and will evolve to changing needs over time.
“We're going … continually come back (to Albertans). We need to keep that conversation going,” he said.
