SUNDRE – As a Sundre and area organization that aims to recruit and retain health-care professionals continues its mission, available housing has been found to be among the challenges.
“Housing is one of our biggest expenses,” said Joyce Wicks, chair of the Sundre Health Professional Attraction and Retention Committee (SHPARC).
Wicks was addressing town council on Dec. 16 accompanied by Gerald Ingeveld, chair of the Sundre Hospital Futures Committee.
During the presentation, Wicks said 2024 was a busy year and that efforts to recover from the loss of numerous physicians several years ago are bearing fruit. As well, there are 16 RNs and LPNs who have been hired, she said.
A priority has been ensuring the emergency room at the Myron Thompson Health Centre always remains open, she said, recalling a service interruption during the 2023 holidays when there were some shifts that did not have any available doctors on hand.
“In this last year, even while we may not have had our own local primary care doctors available, we brought in locums to do on call,” she said. “So, we have not had one shift in the 2024 year without a physician on-call.”
Courtesy of funding from the Rural Health Professions Action Plan (RhPAP), the committee has been able to secure some accommodations including a five-plex near the hospital as well as a half-duplex, she said.
And following a mishap this past fall that resulted in four beds becoming unavailable, the committee found itself seeking out billets, she said.
“We had people just rise up in the community,” said Wicks, adding those who provided room – but no board – were offered a nominal fee of $30 per night.
Expressing optimism, she said the situation overall is promising and that the committee is excited by the prospective housing projects in town.
For his part, Ingeveld said that above and beyond the committee’s primary focus of attracting and retaining health-care professionals is to continue working towards the health centre’s eventual replacement while along the way raising funds for the hospital’s equipment and health-care training programs.
“Over the past 12 months, we’ve purchased $380,000 on equipment for our hospital,” said Ingeveld.
The committee’s vision is two-fold; not only building a new hospital but also establishing Sundre as a rural health-care campus. Achieving those goals will require an enduring commitment from council in tandem with ongoing efforts to advocate the provincial government, he said.
An ad hoc health advisory steering group struck by council last spring should prove crucial, he said, calling that new committee “the final piece of the puzzle that will push this project forward.”
Among some of the highlights included in the report presented by SHPARC in council’s agenda package was reaching a milestone of $1 million raised through donations since 2018 and a total of approximately 1,000-plus volunteer hours in 2023-24 alone.
Coun. Paul Isaac, who following a health-related absence was back at his chair, praised the committee’s members and volunteers for their work in supporting efforts to improve local health-care services.
Coun. Chris Vardas said he was also no stranger to the health-care system and added the community is “blessed” to have both professionals providing care as well as the committee that supports them.
“Without you guys, Sundre would be a different place,” said Vardas.
Mayor Richard Warnock expressed pride in being able to brag about the committee’s success stories including increasing the number of seats for training in X-ray and lab technicians.
Warnock also asked what had happened when the four beds became temporarily unavailable.
Wicks explained that an unexpected sewage backup resulted in the property requiring major remediation. Although the owner had the funds to proceed without waiting for insurance to come through first, the repairs still took approximately 10 weeks, she said, adding that was when the billets that were offered by the community came in handy.
Following the presentation, council unanimously carried a motion accepting the report for information.
