SUNDRE — The mayor is done tip toeing around on eggshells regarding COVID-19 public health protocols and bluntly said people can either choose to be a part of the solution, or the problem.
“Vaccine hesitancy is a very real thing,” said Terry Leslie on May 14 after meeting virtually with officials from Alberta Health Services ahead of the May long weekend that is expected to bring out several tens of thousands of people.
“I look at it and say, if you want to be part of the solution, go get a vaccine. If you want to be part of the problem, don’t,” said Leslie, who received his first dose in March.
Asked whether Premier Jason Kenney’s mixed messaging — whereby the premier encourages Albertans to get vaccinated only to turn around in the next breath and say it’s totally OK if they decide not to since it’s their choice — has undermined the overall effort to immunize the population, Leslie chuckled and said that when he grew up, “there wasn’t a question” from the general public and especially parents who were eager to protect their children from diseases like polio and tuberculosis.
“I’m grateful that COVID has not been something that kills children. We would have taken a different societal approach, I believe, if our children were at the same risk as our elderly and frail,” said Leslie.
The mayor added public health measures that are put in place to protect society’s most vulnerable, such as the elder population as well as those who are immunocompromised, are not an infringement on his rights and freedoms, which he said do not come free from responsibility.
“For my mind, I don’t have a question that I have personal rights and freedoms. I know I have them, and I exercise them everyday,” he said.
Rather, he said an appeal to his sense of collective responsibility to the community and those who are most vulnerable, as well as the front line workers providing essential services in grocery stores to hospitals, compels him to listen to the advice of medical professionals.
“I believe that’s my responsibility,” he said, adding he is “absolutely done with walking a line” with regards to humouring the idea he must respect the position of those who choose to do whatever they want despite the desperate pleas from health care workers all over the world.
Health care system strained
As the pandemic’s third wave in Alberta continues hitting the province harder than the first two, concerns that hospitals — and more specifically, staff — could become strained to the breaking point in the coming weeks, thereby forcing temporary closures of emergency rooms as health care workers isolate and recover such as happened in Rocky Mountain House, are growing, he said.
“The front line folks that have been doing this for 14 months, they are run ragged,” he said.
These concerns prompted the municipality to send Alberta Health Services a letter co-signed by Mountain View County Reeve Bruce Beattie requesting an opportunity to discuss options to ensure the Myron Thompson Health Centre would be adequately staffed and able to provide service continuity for the coming long weekend, he said.
The letter was also written on behalf of the Sundre Wellness Advocacy Committee — a subcommittee of Sundre Hospital Futures — with a copy sent to Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre MLA Jason Nixon.
The futures committee works closely with medical professionals in the community, who are worried about the potential strain imposed on the local health care system by a sudden surge of upwards of 40,000 people. Perhaps even more as so many people seek to escape COVID-19 fatigue, he said.
“There is a very serious concern about overwhelming the hospital here,” he said, adding both councils and the committee sought to advocate for the facility and its staff ahead of the busy long weekend.
Recognizing that other rural hospitals also face a similar uphill staffing battle, the letter acknowledged the difficulty involved in hiring and deploying nurses when there are 200 positions that remain vacant in Central Zone.
Among the recommendations outlined were for AHS to redeploy actively registered RNs and LPNs back to the workplace from COVID testing and vaccinating programs, instead allowing local pharmacists to administer vaccinations and delegate COVID testing to other health care professionals or retired nursing staff.
“We are examining the possibilities of declaring a local state of emergency, and what supports we may be able to offer to our hospital,” reads a portion of the letter, later adding, “We want to be able to offer solutions to what we see as a looming crisis in the next few weeks.”
The mayor said the letter was not ignored and actually ended up leading to the meeting, which he felt was a constructive attempt to plan proactively instead of reacting on the fly.
“The struggle that we all have, is to try and understand and then try to figure out what we might be able to do to help,” he said.
Perhaps among the highlights was a discussion regarding messaging and how to convey to the community what medical experts with Alberta Health Services are encouraging people to do.
“And the message is crystal clear, it’s go get vaccinated,” he said.
But receiving a vaccine is only a part of the equation, which also requires people to for the time being continue following public health measures and planning well ahead of any back country adventures to remain as safe as possible, he said.
“Because if you end up going to the hospital, you can’t go with an entourage. The protocols are strict. Stay safe out there so you don’t need a hospital.”
Although Leslie did not say whether the request to redeploy staff from other programs had been approved, he said the message they got is that all options are being considered.
“I believe after our conversation, there are plans in place,” he said. “Our local administrator can call on Central Zone for redeployment if we do get an influx of many people.”
Another reason behind writing the letter was to seek a better understanding of how AHS operates in an effort to find ways to provide assistance.
“That’s how we do thing in a small community, we help each other,” he said. “And we want to extend that to the broader Alberta Health Services community as well.
"That problem solving approach is what we wanted to bring to the table. If we understand better the issues that Alberta Health Services has, we can perhaps provide some solutions."
The matter of the temporary closure of the emergency room in Rocky Mountain House that was a result of a disruption in staff rotations caused by self-isolations, was also brought up during the meeting, he said.
“We did ask about that, because it’s top of mind," he said. "That’s what we don’t want to see. The information we received, was that was a one-off. That’s not something that is a regular occurrence.”
No silver bullet
While the provincial health authority urges local governments to encourage their residents to get vaccinated, the mayor also cautions against assuming that vaccines are a silver bullet solution.
“The health care folks that I speak to, say this is not just for a month,” he said.
“COVID’s going to be with us for a decade,” not unlike the seasonal flus that society has been forced to get used to and prepare for to have options on how to deal with them, he said.
“There isn’t a silver bullet,” he said. “The science is watching in real-world time to try to figure out what some of the solutions will be in the future.”
After receiving one dose of a vaccine, a person is about 70 to 80 per cent protected from the worst potential impacts of COVID-19 if they were to contract the virus.
And even a booster won’t guarantee full protection, which underscores the importance of continuing to follow other health measures, he said.
On a related tangent, Leslie pointed out the both National Nurses Week and Alberta Rural Health Week are observed this month.
“If you know a nurse, give a nurse a call and say, ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you,’” he said.
“The best way to do that, is to follow those three things that they’re asking for — go get a vaccination, follow the protocols and protect the people around you, stay safe and prepare, and try not to use the health care system.”
