Crossfield Town council gave a nod of support at its Feb. 2 meeting to a proposed Health Park initiative in Airdrie after discussing its own health care issues that could be alleviated by improvements in its closest neighbouring city.
The request for support was first received Jan. 5, according to Crossfield Mayor Nathan Anderson, who joined the meeting via Skype and urged council to accept the request.
“They’re a great ally of ours and I think we should give them what they want, if it’s reasonable, right away so they have that (support),” Anderson said.
Airdrie Mayor Peter Brown said the City has been fighting for 24-hour health care for at least five years, but said there hasn’t been much success.
With nine beds in total at the Airdrie Regional Health Centre for a population of almost 60,000, Brown said there is roughly one bed for every 6,000 residents. He compared that to Cochrane, a municipality of 23,084 as of 2015, which he said has one bed for every 1,000 residents.
“It’s been a huge disparity for a long time,” Brown said.
These roadblocks have forced the community to get creative about taking the initiative to improve its own health care, Brown said, noting the Airdrie Health Benefits Co-operative involving support from the Airdrie Health Foundation, Airdrie Health Park Initiative, Alberta Health Services and the community proposed at the Feb. 1 Airdrie City council meeting.
The co-operative would encompass both the proposed Airdrie Health Park and 24-hour urgent care.
Brown said there has been phenomenal support from surrounding municipalities that also want to see improved health care in Airdrie, including Calgary, Beiseker, Rocky View County and now Crossfield.
“It’s always been Airdrie and area because we realize a lot of our clients that use our urgent care system come from other municipalities,” he said. “It’s really great that the region is coming forward.”
With municipalities like Grande Prairie, population 68,556 as of 2015, receiving a $647.5 million regional hospital and High Prairie, population 2,600 as of 2011, receiving a budgeted $160 million health complex, Crossfield Chief Administrative Officer Ken Bosman said there are legitimate questions to be asked as to why facilities of those magnitudes are not being looked at to service the health needs of 60,000 people in the city and the vast numbers in surrounding municipalities.
As Crossfield is set to develop in the coming years, improved health care in Airdrie would go hand in hand with supporting growth in the town, Bosman said.
He said the ambulance response times are “horrible” in Crossfield with the very rough estimated average of 16 to 19 minutes, which Bosman said is well below the Alberta Health Services standard of 10 minutes for rural areas.
Bosman added, if 24-hour care was available in Airdrie, it would mean Crossfield residents needing urgent care would get it 20 to 30 minutes faster.
“Somebody who is having a heart attack or a stroke, those 25 or 30 minutes are pretty darn critical,” Bosman said.
- With files from Christina Waldner
