Members of the Airdrie Regional Health Foundation (ARHF) met with Alberta Health Services (AHS) board chair Stephen Lockwood, April 8.
This meeting follows on the heels of a visit from the Minister of Health Fred Horne, March 28, when Mayor Peter Brown and the minister discussed the city’s healthcare needs, current situation and potential solutions.
ARHF vice chair Michelle Bates, Airdrie Alderman Allan Hunter and Dr. Julian Kyne met with Lockwood at the Urgent Care Centre to give him a sense of the health services the community currently has.
“I feel confident that AHS is recognizing Airdrie as a city and not just a place to stop on the highway,” said Bates.
“We have legitimate needs that should be looked after. I hope AHS is taking us seriously and going to make decisions based on what we need.”
She said the eight beds at the Airdrie Urgent Care Centre, which is open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., are not nearly enough for the more than 46,000 people in Airdrie and 15,000 in surrounding communities.
“What we have is not adequate,” she said.
“It’s not sustainable, we need something different, something bigger.”
She said ambulances from Calgary are now being diverted to Airdrie Urgent Care, compounding the problem further.
An interview with Lockwood could not be arranged before press time.
However Kyne said Lockwood seemed pleased that citizens were actively engaged in coming up with solutions to healthcare issues in their community.
“Clearly, what we are doing is getting together as citizens and saying these are our needs and we want to be full participants in our health care solutions,” said the doctor, who has been practicing medicine in the area for 25 years.
He said the foundation is in the preliminary planning stages of a health “super centre” that would include a triage desk, 24-hour care and beds, a medical clinic, lab services and scanning technology, designed by health practitioners.
“For the longest time, Airdrie has been a victim of its own rapid growth,” he said.
“When it comes to making sure the citizens of Airdrie have family doctors and health care 24 hours a day, we are scrambling to keep up with growth. This is in the early stage but it is potentially one component that can help alleviate some of these problems.”
Hunter agreed. The alderman invited Lockwood to visit Airdrie and he said the AHS board chair seemed to “get a good sense of what we are dealing with.”
“He was really interested by the super centre idea because it is something different and something they can really sink their teeth into,” Hunter said.
He said the foundation is not looking for new money to be put into health care in Airdrie but for existing funding to be redirected to the community.
“We are spending the money anyway, let’s spend it here,” he said.
He said the foundation is looking for unorthodox opportunities that will change the way people look at healthcare services.
Hunter said the fact Luxstone Manor is looking to expand is a prime example of one such opportunity.
“What if we put end-of-life facilities in there to free up some beds? I don’t want to see anyone’s grandma in the hallway of a hospital waiting for the end of their life. It’s not dignified,” Hunter said.
“I would like to see us be a model for the rest of the province.”
