While it seems as though the Sundre Hospital Futures Committee has successfully presented its case to keep some long-term care beds in the community, work remains to be done regarding the remaining beds.
“For some time we've known the health minister wants to keep long-term care beds in Sundre,” said Gerald Ingeveld, committee chair.
The minister is also open to using some of the other beds that will become available for other purposes, he said.
Alberta Health Services had announced in March its intention to close all 15 of the hospital's long-term care beds, causing a near instant backlash from the community. Since then, a consultation process largely spearheaded by local efforts has yielded significant progress. During an early May public meeting, residents heard the hospital futures committee had come up with a plan that would retain five long-term care beds, convert seven into other services while the last three would still be closed to accommodate the space required for lab services.
Ingeveld told the Round Up he had attended in mid-May a meeting with the deputy minister as well as the president and CEO of AHS.
“They were really coming to verify that we have had appropriate consultations through stakeholders and that the community is behind the project,” he said.
At that time, the minimum of five long-term care beds that the committee had asked for was “a done deal.” But it took until early last week for that information to make its way back to the hospital, he said.
The committee's plan will also require some staffing changes to reflect the new reality at the hospital, he said.
“That's finally been announced to the staff and to the families of those long-term care patients.”
While the process to determine a plan for the remaining beds is ongoing, the project has the support of the deputy minister and the health minister, he said.
“But it has to run through all levels of administration.”
Depending on whether the other beds are converted to flex, restorative, acute, palliative or another type of care, renovations or upgrades to the hospital might be required, he said.
“What would we have to do to make this happen?” he said, adding the committee is in the process of working through those details.
AHS would like to have the health minister provide the final approval and make the announcement official, he said.
“Every ‘t' has to be crossed and ‘i' dotted before they can do that.”
But as of last week, the five long-term care beds were secured. As for the rest, the committee hopes to have a better idea by the end of the month. Until then, the 15 long-term care beds at the hospital will continue to provide the service, he said.
Then, come July, the long-term care patients who don't require that level of service will be transferred to the Mountain View Seniors' Housing Facility, while the few who truly do require long-term care will remain at the hospital, he said.
“As far as we know, we're fairly sure that we're going to come pretty close to what we asked for.”
That success can be attributed to the community's steadfast determination combined with the willingness of people from all walks of life to work together, which paved the way for the hospital to be built in the first place, he said.
“The people that work for us in AHS really want everything that we want. It's just down to budgets — how do we afford to do this without hurting another part of the province?”
The health minister's office could not be reached for comment by Monday's press time.
