Physicians in Sundre and Olds are still waiting to hear from Alberta Health Services on whether their plan to set up a primary care network in the area will be approved by the provincial health authority.
The message was delivered to Olds town council on January 28 during the council's regular meeting.
ìThe whole process has been quite challenging,î said Dr. Jaco Hoffman.
Hoffman said the physicians submitted a business plan in June 2012 to Alberta Health Services and in the fall wrote to Fred Horne, minister of health, asking for a progress report on the application. The physicians are still waiting to hear about their business plan.
The physicians are estimating the Peaks to Prairies PCN would have an annual budget of about $1.2 million and focus on four main areas: women's and infants' health; complex care and chronic disease management; mental health and social work; and health prevention and promotion. The PCN aims to serve about 20,000 people.
Following initial work of developing a local PCN plan, physicians secured additional funding to lease extra space that would be needed in Olds to better serve patients, over and above space at the Wild Rose Medical Centre.
ìWe definitely have a big problem finding our space to house (services and professionals),î Hoffman said.
Hoffman said the current $1.2-million budget would work out to about $62 per patient.
ìThe PCN should be seen for what it is a good tool for the community to take charge of health care in the community. The main goal is to still get those four main priorities,î he said.
Dr. Steven Turner said the aim of the PCN is to broaden the amount of services available locally to patients and that physicians would welcome any support the town could provide.
ìThe goal for this is to enhance physician services to the community. What we're bringing to the table is $1.2 million in services,î he said.
Turner said council and administration should consider what they can do to support the PCN.
In an interview following the presentation, Hoffman said the best area of collaboration between town officials and the physicians once the PCN is up and running is finding the extra space to deliver additional services.
ìThe main area, now, as we discussed, is space requirements for our PCN. I think that's one area where the Peaks to Prairies PCN, and especially the Olds segment of that, can work very closely with town council to see if we can provide some sort of space where we can provide the services,î Hoffman said.
While Olds Mayor Judy Dahl said she found the presentation enlightening, she declined to comment on how the town might collaborate with the physicians until the plan is approved by Alberta Health Services.
ì(The approval) might put us in a different direction. There might be many factors involved as far as the thoughts from the province,î she said.
Hoffman said the main idea behind setting up the PCN is to provide patients with more and better services locally, better meeting their needs in a team approach.
ìWe would like to have gaps in services that currently exist between physician and patient care to be narrowed by using health-care professionals in all modalities to provide better services to our patients,î he said.
"We definitely have a big problem finding our space to house (services and professionals)."Dr. Jaco Hoffman, Peaks to Prairies PCN
