OLDS — A solution to the shortage of doctors and other health care professionals could be to think regionally, not just concentrate on the local community, Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills MLA Nathan Cooper says.
Cooper made that suggestion during a presentation to the Town of Olds council’s policies and priorities meeting.
"I think sometimes we get into a bit of a bidding war, if you will, between our local communities, like ‘we have enough but you don’t have enough,’ when really we need to start looking more regionally,” Cooper said.
“I know it’s a bit funny because of where the actual regional lines are in terms of Didsbury and Olds and central and Calgary and whatever else, but more broadly, having a bit of a region approach as opposed to – it's not like, oh well, people in Olds are short or otherwise,” he added.
He was responding to a question from Olds chief administrative officer Brent Williams, who noted that about 2,600 people in Olds and area are without a family doctor.
In light of that, Williams asked what influence MLAs such as Cooper can do to spur bureaucrats to change that situation “if really it is a policy issue that’s dictating our man-made physician shortage.”
In an email to the Albertan, Williams noted that AHS officials say Olds has enough doctors, despite the waiting list. Another issue, he said, is that the Olds Hospital & Care Centre is a taking on capacity from Red Deer’s hospital but is not being given the complimentary staffing support to care for those patients.
During his appearance at council, Cooper alluded to the fact that Tony Yoo, MLA for Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo and Garth Rowswell, MLA for Vermilion-Lloydminster-Wainwright. are investigating what can be done to recruit more doctors and other health professionals to rural Alberta communities.
They will be presenting a report to the Health Minister Jason Copping and cabinet with recommendations on how to improve rural health access and outcomes.
"From they have been hearing, very similar issues persist across the province in terms of health care professional shortages," Williams wrote in his email.
Cooper noted that last November, the Alberta Health Services (AHS) board was replaced with one person – Dr. John Cowell who is now president and chief executive officer of AHS. He has also been referred to as the administrator of AHS.
Cowell’s job is to make the system more efficient and responsive to Albertans’ medical needs.
Cooper said Cowell has already spurred some improvements.
“Personally, I’m of the opinion that having the official administrator in place has actually allowed a faster, more effective change over the short term at AHS,” Cooper said.
“I feel good about our ability to make meaningful change right now.”
However, he admitted there’s still more work to do.
Too often, Cooper said, politicians and bureaucrats get into a blame game.
“You run into a bit of this sort of impact where politicians are saying this is AHS’s fault, AHS is saying this is the politicians’ fault and the person in the middle is the one needing care or waiting for a doctor or whatever.
“And so there’s an ongoing and underlying frustration that comes along with that,” he said.
Coun. James Cummings pointed out that late last year, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business released a report on health care in Canada.
He said that report indicated that physicians or other health care professionals are spending too much time filling out paperwork, which cuts down on the time they can be spending with patients.
Cummings cited his own case as an example, saying several weeks ago, he had his shoulder operated on.
“The nurse took 45 minutes to administer me digitally on their computer system but took five minutes to actually do physically do all the things she needed to do to me before I went in," he said.
“So 45 minutes of administration for, say, 10 minutes of actual nursing seems to be a really horrible ratio there that maybe, according to this report anyway, is driving a lot of that factor.”
He wondered if the Alberta government’s red tape reduction efforts could help solve that problem.
Cooper said the red tape initiative “doesn’t have jurisdiction into the day-to-day workings of AHS” but could “encourage” changes.
He said Cowell has already created efficiencies in areas such as patient transfer by ambulance staff.
“I don’t take it lightly, your recommendation upon trying to find ways that we can create a better balance between having a fair, transparent and safe system, but also not one that’s over-cumbersome.
“And so I’m happy to take that back to the ministry to find out what ways AHS is actually trying to implement that in their organization as well,” he said.
Cooper also praised the work that Williams has been doing on the health professional shortage front, saying he’s heard good words about “the great working relationship that they’ve had with the community of Olds, largely because of Brent.
He said he knows that work took Williams away from other duties he could have been doing on behalf of the town.
“So thank you for freeing him up and allowing him to do that and expanding the role of our shared communities’ voice in the policy direction of the province.”
