SUNDRE — Although physicians at the Moose & Squirrel Medical Clinic have as of July 1 officially withdrawn their privileges to work at the local hospital, services at the facility remain largely unchanged.
Dr. Bill Ward, lead physician at the Greenwood Family Physicians clinic as well as Facility Medical Director for Sundre Hospital and Care Centre, said last week during an interview that the "services provided at the hospital are not going to alter in any way.”
The emergency department, he stressed, will remain fully open, with shifts for the following three months already delegated. Anyone who arrives at emergency with for example chest pains indicative of a heart attack will be treated exactly the same as in the past, he said.
“There are going to be doctors available 24-7, the vast majority will be Greenwood doctors,” he said, adding there, “may occasionally be some locums coming in to work.”
Locums are physicians brought in from elsewhere to fill in health care vacancies or gaps in a community. For example, in the coming months, Ward said several weekend shifts are going to be covered by Dr. Jenny Duke, who was born and raised in Sundre but now works out of Medicine Hat.
While obstetrics have been unavailable since mid-April, Ward said that change was more a result of COVID-19 related protocols that require isolated units with their own entrance to accommodate child delivery during the pandemic.
“It’s a service that’s gone for the duration of COVID. The decision was made by the powers that be,” he said.
Although few hospitals outside the main urban centres in the Central Zone are able to provide obstetrics during this time, Ward acknowledged there could potentially be problems with continuing to offer the service in Sundre after the pandemic has passed.
“Certainly we don’t want to lose obstetrics in Sundre,” he said, adding the matter for now will require waiting to see what happens.
While some physician members of Greenwood are able to do obstetrics, most don’t, he said.
The team of doctors at Moose & Squirrel rescinded their privileges at the hospital as a result of the difficulties the health-care professionals are experiencing with the provincial government at the moment.
Ward said he very much shares Moose & Squirrel physicians’ concerns and sentiments about a government that bypasses any attempt at meaningful consultation and enacts legislation that allows it to unilaterally tear up a master pay agreement without anything else in its place. But he added that Greenwood’s doctors simply were not prepared to follow suit.
“We couldn’t follow their decision,” he said.
Due to the uncertain nature of not only the pandemic but also what he maintains is a lack of stabilty in the government’s approach to dealing with health care, he said Greenwood does not have a specific plan moving forward.
“Because things will change. We are going to have to respond to that change," he said.
However, he confirmed that for the foreseeable future, Greenwood would continue carrying on operating from its two clinics located next to the grocery story on Main Avenue and near the hospital.
“We are going to carry on providing services, apart from obstetrics, and there isn’t going to be a time when the doors are shut.”
Ward said like his counterparts at the Moose & Squirrel clinic, Greenwood plans to hunker down and ride out not only the pandemic but also the UCP government.
“We’re just doing it in different ways,” he said. “While we support the Moose & Squirrel Medical Clinic in their stance, they felt they could move forward and say, ‘We’re leaving the hospital.’ We didn’t feel we could do that.”
Ward said the big question looking to the future is whether the government will actually start to negotiate.
“The problem is, if you’ve got a government that can tear up the contract, it gets extremely difficult to actually start to work with them. There has to be some stability,” he said.
Asked if he has faith in the UCP government, he said no.
Dr. Warren confirmed that as of July 1, none of their clinic’s physicians had privileges for any work at the Sundre hospital.
“Some of our physicians are working out of province. The rest are working 100 per cent of the time in clinic,” Warren said July 1.
“If we are asked to come in and provide services at the Sundre hospital, it will depend on our commitments in other areas whether or not we would actually be able to help out.”
Further complicating matters, she added, was Alberta Health Services’ refusal “to grant any of the Moose & Squirrel physicians locum privileges unless they were specifically working for another doctor and only for that day in question.”
While the Moose & Squirrel physicians have locum status in Central Zone as well as other zones in Alberta and other provinces and territories, Warren said officially, they are unable to do anything in Sundre unless forms are submitted and approved.
“None of which has happened as of now,” she said.
Additionally, she said the use of locum physicians from out-of-town means a reduced continuity of care since the doctors are dealing with patients they aren’t familiar with.
With the exception to obstetrics, she said the procedures the Moose & Squirrel physicians used to provide at the hospital — including but not limited to stitching up lacerations, draining abscesses, initiating antibiotics and IVs if needed, excision of skin lesions for diagnosis and treatment, joint injections, wart treatment and IUD insertions and removals — are now being conducted in the clinic.
Furthermore, she said they are also offering services in non-AHS facilities such as the Sundre Seniors’ Supporting Living centre, with plans to expand their presence in Caroline a couple of days a week, “but likely not until fall.”
Kerry Williamson, a spokesperson with AHS, wrote in a press release issued July 3 that “there will be no gaps in physician coverage at Sundre Hospital and Care Centre (HCC), or any changes to patient care. Many local physicians have opted to keep their privileges and appointments at the Sundre HCC.
"Additionally, a number of the physicians who ended their full-time privileges have decided to provide locum coverage, should it be needed.”
The Albertan followed up with Warren for clarification on their status, and she said July 3, "We have appointments in AHS now as locums, but that is merely a title. We do not have privileges, which means we are inactive. We would need to apply for privileges and be approved by AHS to be allowed to work in any AHS facility, including here."
