SUNDRE – The Myron Thompson Health Centre does not sufficiently meet community demand and the building faces several critical issues that in the future stand to impact patient safety, a Sundre committee has determined.
Town of Sundre Mayor Richard Warnock presented a report during the Oct. 28 council meeting updating his colleagues on the activities of the Sundre Hospital Steering Committee, of which he is a member.
The committee was struck earlier this year to lobby the provincial government alongside the Sundre Hospital Futures Committee that for years has been working toward the long-term objective of not only building a new hospital but also establishing a local rural health-care training campus.
“The Myron Thompson Health Centre in Sundre is inadequate for current community demand,” said Warnock.
“There are several critical issues with the facility that in the future will impact the safety and comfort of all the patients,” he said.
And with the latest available estimated cost of $20 million to replace the existing building already dating back to a figure determined by Alberta Health Services in 2010, “we know the number is a lot larger than that,” he said.
In recognition of this critical community need coupled with the provincial government’s stated commitment to foster world class health care for Albertans, the steering committee is endeavouring to work with the health ministry on fostering “an environment within AHS and the entire health community that welcomes innovation and incentivizes the best patient care,” he said.
The mayor added that effort also involves considering options to address other rural health challenges such as identifying strategies to attract and retain health-care workers to rural Alberta.
Sundre's council had approved the steering committee’s terms of reference in March that outline its purpose, composition roles and responsibilities.
“The town’s new steering committee will play a pivotal role in shaping the direction and strategies towards our goal of a new Sundre hospital health complex,” the mayor said.
“The committee will pursue a central Alberta rural health campus that will meet the needs of Sundre and surrounding communities in addition to representation from the town of Sundre,” he added.
Sitting on the steering committee are Sundre representatives mayor Warnock, Coun. Chris Vardas, chief administrative officer Linda Nelson and director of corporate services Chris Albert, as well as Mountain View County representatives reeve Angela Aalbers and chief administrative officer Jeff Holmes or his designate.
Also on the committee are Heidi Overguard with the Sundre Hospital Futures Committee, Dr. Michelle Warren with the Moose and Squirrel Medical Clinic, Dr. Jonathan Somerville with Greenwood Family Physicians, as well as Chantal Crawford, the Myron Thompson Health Centre’s site lead.
The committee met on Oct. 18 with assistant deputy minister Christine Sewell, finance and capital planning division from the ministry of health, as well as Monica Bhardwaj, executive director of corporate and capital planning with Alberta Health, to provide a tour of the health centre and e-sim lab.
The meeting was also an opportunity to discuss the committee’s vision to build a health campus that will not only fully replace the health centre in providing emergency, acute, continuing care to surrounding communities, but also provide an innovative, community supported training environment for rural specialized medical professionals across the province, said Warnock.
The meeting with the provincial representatives wrapped up with the committee extending “a formal request to Alberta Health to appoint a representative to our steering committee to ensure that work that is already being done, is not repeated,” he said, adding Sewell seemed supportive of the request and expressed a commitment for her department to participate.
Coun. Paul Isaac asked if there had been any preliminary indication provided in terms of possible timelines for when a new hospital might be announced.
“There was none given,” said Warnock.
The committee “is working right now in regards to the partnership and we’ll hopefully have some updates going forward over the next month, two or three,” he said.
“Today, we don’t have a firm enough commitment.”
Council carried a motion accepting the mayor’s report as information.
In response to a follow-up question about whether the province had yet appointed any representatives to sit on the steering committee, Warnock told the Albertan on Nov. 6 that, “We are in the process of giving them the information requested including the terms of reference. We expect a response shortly after they review this.”
Previous lobbying work conducted by the Sundre Hospital Futures Committee resulted in a prior 2020 commitment from the provincial government to include a replacement hospital in Sundre on the 20-year capital plan.
