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An internal note shared with Postmedia said the AHS would review the deviation on a weekly basis.
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April 30, 2022 • 9 hours ago • 3 minutes reading • 55 comments The front entrance of the Noble Deer District Hospital. Postmedia, file
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Some joint operations will be relocated away from Red Deer Regional Hospital to other health centers in central Alberta, as well as in Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta health services confirmed on Saturday.
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As of Friday, some surgical patients are deviating from the facility, said AHS spokeswoman Kerry Williamson. He said the move was temporary as AHS was trying to restore normal surgery. Meanwhile, patients will be referred to surgical centers in other facilities in places such as Camrose, Rocky Mountain House and Drumheller. Some patients will be sent to Calgary.
“Patients with planned procedures, emergencies that cannot be safely transferred, and call coverage for existing patients will continue to be provided at (Red Deer Regional Hospital Center),” Williamson said in an email. “We acknowledge that this will cause some stress and anxiety in some of our surgical patients, but we have made every effort to avoid this temporary deviation.”
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Williamson said only general surgeries would be affected, including conditions such as appendicitis, bowel resections, laparotomies and gallbladder removal.
“These measures are due to a number of factors, including a shortage of clinical assistants who support the general surgery program,” Williamson said. “The situation will be reviewed and evaluated regularly, as recruitment efforts are ongoing and will be eliminated as soon as possible.”
An internal note shared with Postmedia said the AHS would review the deviation on a weekly basis. Although the AHS has taken all measures to avoid diversion, the note also says that it must be done to maintain patient care. General surgeons will remain on call to treat patients who are too unstable to move and to provide continued care, according to the document.
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Commenting late Saturday night, Alberta Health said it “regrets that some general surgery patients have been turned away from Red Deer” and added that they are working with AHS to address staff gaps and resume regular surgical volumes at the site.
“Canada’s health systems have been under pressure for two years since the pandemic. At the same time, we are seeing a large number of patients, in line with peak winter volumes, “said Steve Buick, spokesman for Health Secretary Jason Kopping. Buick added that the province has allocated $ 1.8 billion for the reconstruction of the Red Deer Regional Hospital.
David Shepard, an official health critic, said the closure could be directly linked to the UCP government and called on it to present a plan to address the problem and better fund the provincial health system.
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“It just shows how bad the chaos is in our health care system right now. And I’m making a direct line to that back to the UCP government, “Shepard said. “Their choice during the pandemic to push this system to the limit only exhausts our healthcare workforce.
NDP health critic David Shepard at a press conference in Edmonton on Monday, December 13, 2021. Photo by File photo
Shepard said earlier this week that there was a queue of ambulances in front of Red Deer Hospital waiting to enter the emergency room. He said his heart was focused on Red Deer residents affected by the deviation and that he hoped the measure would be short-lived.
“Unfortunately, there are no short-term, immediate solutions here,” Shepard said. “We can’t produce more health workers out of nothing.”
Buick denounced the NDP’s criticism as “empty politics.”
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“The NDP has been watching for four years as waiting times for operations and other delays worsen and do nothing about it, and now they are blaming the government for any tension in the system, as if the pandemic only affected Alberta,” Buick said.
The deviation comes at a time when AHS is experiencing closure of beds in other parts of central Alberta. Myron Thompson Health Center in Sundre is temporarily unavailable, while Rocky Mountain House is experiencing a temporary shortage of staff, leading to a reduction in emergency care beds at the municipal health center. Several other communities in central and northern Alberta had temporary cuts to bed or space on Friday, the AHS website said Saturday.
dshort@postmedia.com
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