Mayor Peter Brown, Airdrie Health Foundation (AHF) Chair Michelle Bates and AHF board member Dr. Julian Kyne said they were cautiously optimistic something will be done about Airdrie’s lack of 24-hour healthcare after meeting with Alberta Health Minister Sarah Hoffman Dec. 14.
Hoffman met with members of the AHF and toured the Airdrie Urgent Care Centre (AUCC) before speaking briefly with reporters.
“I’m pretty optimistic because she listened,” Bates said. “Once you’ve listened to the story, I think it’s pretty hard to deny. We haven’t had anyone here from the government before really to listen to us and to listen to our ideas.
“Hopefully this journey is going to end sooner rather than later – it’s been a long five years – but we’ll keep pushing. Airdrie keeps getting bigger. They can only deny us for so long and it will be on them if another little five-year-old boy dies.”
Bates’ five-year-old son, Lane, died suddenly after becoming ill in the middle of the night in 2009. Something that may not have happened, she said, if Airdrie residents had access to 24-hour healthcare.
Hoffman said the greatest challenge facing the government in terms of improving healthcare in Airdrie is money.
“When you look at the price of oil this week and even compare that to where it was at two months ago there are even more acute pressures,” Hoffman said. “We want to make sure we have a balance of being a shock absorber in terms of the Government of Alberta maintaining quality care and not moving ahead with rash cuts.”
“We’re certainly looking at bending the cost curve and at the same time making sure we have a nice, stable healthcare system. Those two can sometimes feel like they’re in conflict.”
Hoffman made no concrete promises, saying only that she wanted to “work with Airdrie and work with citizens throughout Alberta and make sure no matter where you live, you have the right care in the right place at the right time.”
Brown said he was pleased Hoffman had taken the time to come down to Airdrie to speak with the AHF and other stakeholders.
“She has a massively challenging portfolio. For her to come down, spend two hours – she’s the first minister in my time (as mayor) to tour the facility and see some of the challenges that exist there,” he said.
“She really listened and the part of the meeting I really respected the most was her getting emotional because she can see the amount of community support in Airdrie and make some unique initiatives come forward. I’m really looking forward to working with her.”
For his part, Kyne – who was medical director of AUCC until being let go by Alberta Health Services at the end of November with no explanation, prompting more than one petition calling for his reinstatement – said he was excited the minister had come to meet with the AHF.
“What I’ve seen in the past number of weeks is Airdrie sort of taking on the role and saying ‘this is our job to see this through, to get our healthcare taken care of,’” he said. “And we’re not going to hand this over to someone else to do. We’re going to partner in this and we’re going to determine what our healthcare is all about.”
Hoffman committed to having the Deputy Minister of Health Dr. Carl Amrhein come to a meeting with the AHF in January 2016, to get a better understanding of the city’s healthcare needs and to look at the foundation’s proposal for a healthcare park.
