Following is a letter local resident Terry Storey sent to Premier Rachel Notley -- combined with information from another letter he sent to Olds Hospital and Care Centre medical facilities director Dr. Jaco Hoffman.
Both are in regard the ongoing issue of physician Dr. Clarence Graff not having hospital privileges -- the ability to look after his patients in hospital.
All other family physicians in town, including the chief of staff at Olds hospital, work out of the Wild Rose Medical Clinic which, except for Dr. Graff, has a monopoly on family medicine in the town and surrounding service area.
Dr. Graff did have admitting privileges at the hospital up until he took a one-year leave of absence. He has since been unable to re-acquire them without satisfying two conditions imposed upon him by Alberta Health Services: doing a one-month placement in Ponoka, followed by a period of assessment and a willingness to be placed on call at the hospital.
Dr. Graff is a good physician with decades of medical experience in the community. I believe that the conditions imposed upon Dr. Graff are petty and unnecessary, given his seniority and experience.
It is my understanding that, as it stands now, only patients at the Wild Rose Medical Clinic can be attended to in hospital by their family physician, as only Wild Rose Clinic physicians have admitting privileges to the local hospital.
Your intervention in this matter to get Dr. Graff's admitting privileges reinstated without conditions would be appreciated, and would improve the availability of medical care in the area.
Doctor patient ratios in the town of Olds are deceiving, in that Olds is an agricultural service centre with an extensive client base much larger than the town's population.
Terry Storey
Olds
