An Alberta Health Services (AHS) official admitted during a public meeting about closing Sundre hospital's 15 long-term care beds that there had been a failure to adequately communicate intentions. "There's no picking on Sundre whatsoever.
An Alberta Health Services (AHS) official admitted during a public meeting about closing Sundre hospital's 15 long-term care beds that there had been a failure to adequately communicate intentions.
"There's no picking on Sundre whatsoever. First and foremost, what we've probably done is a very poor job of communicating with folks," said Kerry Bales, chief zone officer, central zone for AHS, during the Monday, March 21 meeting at the Sundre Legion.
"The one thing I can tell you is there's no plan to close the hospital. I would know, because I'd be the one signing it off."
AHS officials apprised hospital staff in recent weeks that all 15 long-term care beds at the Sundre Hospital and Care Centre would be closing. The bed closures come as construction of the new Mountain View Seniors' Housing facility in town — which will feature 40 supportive living beds — nears completion, scheduled for June.
The announcement sparked concerns over loss of jobs, appropriate placement of current long-term care residents, and fears the entire hospital would close.
Pressed during the March 21 meeting on whether the decision to close the beds could be reversed, Bales told more than 300 people, including officials from the Town of Sundre, and Mountain View and Clearwater counties that there was no intention of reversing the decision.
Emotions flared as some people shouted out "Then it's a waste of time!"
Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre MLA Jason Nixon and his staff organized the meeting to rally the community and provide an opportunity for people to ask questions and air their concerns to AHS and the provincial government.
"Nobody in this community, when we started to build that building (the new Mountain View Seniors' Housing facility), thought that we were going to lose 15 long-term care beds," said Nixon.
"We are excited about that facility coming to our town. Many people in this room worked very hard to get it. That does not mean that we should lose our long-term care beds though."
After providing some background on the situation to date, Nixon said the consultation process had been "completely inadequate and it created a tremendous amount of confusion and stress on this community."
He wanted to know what information AHS used to arrive at its decision to close the beds, as well as whether AHS could live up to the health minister's commitments that the long-term care residents could stay in Sundre and that staff would find alternate positions in the community.
"When we do some of this planning, what we look at is what's the actual need for care. Not what care can be provided, but what's the actual need for care," said Bales.
All the long-term care residents currently in Sundre have had their needs assessed and nothing has changed — they have not been assessed as having lower care needs than they used to have, he said.
"They'll be able to quite readily have their care needs met in the new facility," he said.
"Part of the challenge is actually having an understanding around what care needs can actually be met. It's not really a discussion of trying to exclude people or having people leave the community. It's surely having an understanding of what people's care needs can be met and the actual care that can be provided in a supportive living facility. I think that's where a lot of the confusion lies."
Bales also responded to concerns that the closure of the beds is a precursor to the eventual closure of the whole hospital.
"The question of the closure of the hospital, that's going to be an interesting one. I hear that a lot in my business, the 'slippery slope' argument. Any change means a bad change, and it's going to be the first step in the demise of whatever services are in a community," he said.
"The only thing that's really going to be able to convince people is what that long-term service provision is going to look like. And one of the commitments we've been making from the beginning is that this is an expanded model of seniors' delivery of care in Sundre. It's a net investment in the community."
Bales said Sundre's hospital is currently jam-packed and "there isn't a broom closet to do anything with," so the change is creating an opportunity to discuss with representatives of the community working with physicians and staff and others to determine what will be done with the space, he said.
"When you look at the demographics from an emergency department's perspective and acute care perspective, there's nothing west of here from a health-care perspective."
So closing the hospital "just isn't in the cards — it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. The things we are going to be looking at is what can we utilize that space for that actually helps to support the current services that are at the site," he said.
"There are some things that we have to do practically speaking in order to maintain lab services in this hospital. We have to meet some national accreditation standards, which require some space. That's going to be one of the things that we're going to be trying to look at," he said.
"None of this conversation is leading in the direction of getting rid of the hospital. In fact, it's about how do we better support the hospital and how do we make sure that it's got what it needs in the future — that's what the conversation's about."
Local resident and Town of Sundre councillor Myron Thompson recalled when municipalities were able to make decisions locally and still managed to provide the service while staying in the black with budgeted money.
"And now all that direction has to come from the mighty towers above. We can't make local decisions anymore? In a pig's eye! That needs to change," he said, to cheers and applause from the crowd.
Bales also faced a tough question about what kind of vision or plan AHS has for Sundre's hospital.
"At no point is there ever an idea that there isn't a need to continue to see growth in the communities. When we look at the planning, this is part of a provincewide continuing care strategy," he said.
"We're looking at building capacity throughout the province and Sundre just happens to be the community at the moment that we're working on bringing on a new site. The idea is how do we start to tailor the amount of care that is available in areas that will meet the needs of most of the people."
There's a finite amount of resources to run the system and right now AHS is paying the most that can be paid for continuing care services to provide service to people who don't need it, he said.
"That's why introducing supportive living makes sense."
As growth continues and the population ages, Bales said there will be a need to continue introducing such beds. Adding another model of care with more beds to a community is a part of the vision and strategy, he said.
The two-hour-long meeting concluded with Nixon asking Bales whether AHS could meet the minister's commitments.
"If the minister's made that commitment, then we will honour it," said Bales to a mixture of applause and jeers.
"This hospital will remain open," said Nixon, adding he planned to hold the health minister accountable and by extension AHS as well. "You've been very clear that will be honoured. I hope that you see tonight that any chance to not do that would involve a heck of a fight."
