Alberta Health Services should put a full stop on its decision to decommission 15 long-term care beds at the Sundre Hospital and Care Centre, the riding's MLA told town council last week.
Alberta Health Services should put a full stop on its decision to decommission 15 long-term care beds at the Sundre Hospital and Care Centre, the riding's MLA told town council last week.
AHS must complete community consultation and come up with a proper plan for the hospital before taking such a drastic measure as closing the beds down without adequate data to back up the decision, said Jason Nixon, Wildrose MLA for Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre.
"That, to me, was the most alarming thing, is when no significant amount of math of any kind was able to be presented," he said during a special council meeting that was held Wednesday, March 23 to accommodate a town meeting Nixon had organized with AHS officials at the Sundre Legion, during council's regular meeting date on Monday, March 21.
"In my mind, if you were coming to a community to do something as significant as what we're talking about, you should have been able to at least put up a chart" to show the statistics that led to the decision, he said.
"My office has sent a letter to Minister (Sarah) Hoffman and to the premier (Rachel Notley), indicating what I felt that I heard loud and clear from my constituents, and that is that the process that we are undertaking in regards to shutting the long-term care beds should be stopped for the time being," said the MLA.
"A detailed plan in conjunction with all stakeholders involved should be developed."
AHS should be able to answer questions as far as statistics and provide a proper answer regarding why Sundre doesn't need long-term care beds as well as work with the community to get a plan moving forward, he said.
"We're going to launch a petition from the MLA's office that says basically the same thing. It's not going to ask Alberta Health Services for anything specific, other than to halt the process and work with the community and stakeholders to get a plan that makes people feel satisfied, recognizing not everybody will be satisfied — I don't think that's a reasonable expectation."
However, the town meeting illustrated the level of dissatisfaction within the community under the current circumstances, he added.
The MLA said he would be meeting with the health minister one on one following Easter to provide her with feedback from the town meeting.
"From there, I'm going to strongly urge the minister to travel with me to Sundre and meet with the community," he said.
Nixon later went on to point out he did not have any reason not to trust the health minister's intent regarding the promises she made in terms of finding jobs for those affected, ensuring the long-term care patients would all be able to stay in Sundre, as well as keeping the hospital open. But he added those were big commitments that could be challenging to meet.
"Minister Hoffman made some significant promises to people in our community as far as employment in regards to the hospital, and I never heard any indication from Alberta Health Services on how they're going to be able to honour that," he said.
"I suspect that they're not sure how to honour that yet. I don't think that means that they're not going to honour it, but it's probably the toughest thing that she committed to in our meeting in Edmonton, simply because the jobs that will be at the new (Mountain View Seniors' Housing) facility are not at the level of the jobs at the hospital as far as pay and union and those types of issues."
During the election campaign, the NDP had promised not to cut front-line positions, and the government has to be held to account, said Nixon.
