SUNDRE – The municipal council has maintained its long-standing commitment to back the efforts of a local group whose mission is to recruit and retain physicians and other health-care professionals.
A delegation representing the Sundre Hospital Futures Committee appeared before council on Sept. 18 during a regular meeting to provide an update on the group’s activities as well as seek the municipality’s continued support. Gerald Ingeveld, chair, was joined by fellow director Heidi Overguard.
Council heard the organization originally launched in 2010 as a recruitment and retention committee when several doctors had at the time announced their intention to retire or move on.
Since getting started, both Mountain View County and Sundre councils have agreed to approve annual funding, said Ingeveld, adding the group’s recruitment effort has since been expanded to encapsulate all health-care professionals including among others registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, health-care aides, lab techs, and mental health workers.
“Recruitment never ends,” said Overguard. “We have recently launched yet another campaign looking for an additional five doctors to replace those who will soon retire and those wishing to move on.
“We have successfully recruited several new hospital employees in the past few years, and don’t see this need ending anytime soon. And of course the best antidote for recruitment, is retention."
To that end, she added the committee also invests plenty of energy toward ensuring local health-care professionals are reminded how much their service to the community is appreciated while also striving to foster a welcoming and collaborative environment with a focus on teamwork and fun.
Since 2017, she told council that approximately $1.5 million has been raised for both programs and equipment, with every dollar raised staying in the community.
“Much more training is needed to keep our rural professionals on top of their game,” she said, adding that finding and training those who are willing to work in a rural setting is also more challenging.
“That’s why nearly every rural hospital has had to close their emergency rooms for periods of time for the past couple of years. Sundre has not."
The delegates attributed that to the committee’s three-pronged approach to recruitment and retention, which first and foremost involves introducing local students to the variety of career options in medicine and incentivizing them to consider pursuing that path in post secondary.
“The first of these students are just starting to graduate and begin their health-care careers,” said Ingeveld. “A rural-raised student is less likely to enter into a health-care career, but more likely to choose rural when they do.”
Overguard added the committee also offers bursaries to help local students embark on pursuing higher eduction.
“On average, it costs twice as much for a rural student to attend post secondary school due to travel and lodging challenges,” she said, adding every additional financial incentive provides an important boost.
Additionally, the committee also aspires to make Sundre a centre of excellence for health-care training with a specialization on rural service delivery. That vision is already starting to bear fruit through a partnership between the municipality and the Sundre United Church that paved the way for a fully-stocked simulation lab as well as two training labs, said Ingeveld.
“We are in the middle of our second class of health-care aide students and are hoping to offer an LPN course in the next year or so,” he said. “Doctors, nurses, and EMS staff are running simulations to build the teamwork needed to provide the highest level of care in our community.”
Alongside Athabasca University, the committee is also applying for a $200,000 grant to conduct a health-needs assessment for the area. The study will encompass 3,000 Sundre residents as well as 8,000 county residents, he said.
Aside from identifying health-care needs and the committee’s potential to contribute to rural health in the region, Ingeveld said the study will also provide invaluable information to guide future infrastructure planning for a rural health campus in the community.
Concluding their presentation, the delegates also extended to council an invitation to the Sundre Hospital Legacy Gala, which will be held on Nov. 18 at the Sundre Community Centre.
Mayor Richard Warnock entertained a comment from a Sundre resident who was in the chamber observing the meeting.
Craig Smith said he was surprised that not everyone in town is able to get a family doctor considering some physicians have panels of 1,500 patients and that Sundre’s population is only about 2,800 with more than half a dozen full-time doctors serving the community at two clinics.
The mayor suggested that line of questioning might best be directed at Alberta Health, although Ingeveld chimed in to offer additional context.
Physicians are private business people and the number of patients they take on depends on their experience, he said.
“We have two different clinics in town that have two different processes for how many patients they will take,” he said.
“I will say that back when we started, we had doctors that had 1,500 to 2,000 patients each,” he said, adding it usually takes two to three new doctors to replace an outgoing one because they don’t all want to take on those numbers of patients anymore.
Additionally, Alberta Health Services considers the surrounding Sundre area to have about 7,000 people, said Ingeveld, adding that population estimate is rather low and should be closer to 10,000.
“They (AHS) say we should have 11 doctors and we say we should have 14,” he said. “But the aim for AHS is about 700 patients per doctor.”
Coun. Chris Vardas, who’s been on the futures committee since inception, said of the time Ingeveld was referring to that some physicians back then were putting in 15-plus hour days.
“No one wants to work 15 hours a day anymore, they like to have a lifestyle. And that’s exactly what Sundre provides when we go out and we attract these new doctors,” said Vardas.
“We have to show them the lifestyle that Sundre itself and the community can provide for them, and it’s not only work. Because realistically, who really wants to just work and then go home."
Recognizing the struggle to retain health-care staff in terms of housing, Warnock asked if the issue of available accommodations – more specifically lack thereof – might be among the factors considered in the needs assessment.
“We have a very strong need for rentals in health care,” said Ingeveld.
“A large percentage of our staff do not live in Sundre; partly because of the housing, but also partly because maybe a spouse works somewhere else,” he elaborated.
The committee works with the Rural Health Professions Action Plan (RhPAP) to provide living accommodations for medical students.
“Sometimes there’s a gap between students coming to town, so we can jump in and grab one of those for an employee,” he said, adding that sometimes, “we rent some basement rooms for some folks.”
So, the assessment needs study would not only help identify how many rental accommodations would address the gap, but also provide good info for developers, he said.
“Rural hospitals have to fight for their survival in this province,” said Overguard, adding there is not always an adequate amount of or accurate enough data.
Once gathered, that data will be invaluable in steering the direction of health-care service provision in this area, she said.
After accepting the delegation’s report as information, council subsequently carried follow-up motions to purchase one table for the gala as well as to waive the community centre’s rental fee.
“I truly believe our council should always support functions that like, especially when they’re so vital to our community,” said Vardas.
