BOYLE — Residents in and around Boyle will have to travel to surrounding communities for any medical emergencies during the Christmas holidays, according to a Dec. 22 press release from AHS.
The Boyle Healthcare Centre emergency department will be without physician coverage from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. starting Dec. 23 through to Dec. 26, as well as Dec. 28.
“It’s difficult with what’s going on right now with AHS. The fixes are in the making, but they’re not here yet,” said Boyle mayor Colin Derko.
“It’s kind of bittersweet — it’s optimistic because we do have all these things actually happening and all the players are in place, but it’s never soon enough. Here we are with the holiday season coming and the hospital is going to be open, but without a physician there, it’s scary,” added Derko.
The release said nursing staff will be available to triage and assess patients at the centre in need of emergency care. Individuals may be referred to neighboring emergency departments, such as the Athabasca Health Care Centre.
“As leaders in the community and just being a human, you want to fix it, but you can’t. You can’t just walk up there and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to fill in for the doctor today,’” said Derko.
“That’s the scariest and most frustrating part of It … I do have a lot of faith in our nurses that they’ll be able to look after the people coming in, but it’s still added stress for them,” he added.
Temporary disruptions at the William J. Cadzow Lac La Biche emergency department will be ongoing from at 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. Dec. 26-27, 28-29, and 29-30.
The George McDougall Smoky Lake Healthcare Centre emergency department will also be restricted due to a lack of physician coverage between 7 p.m. Dec. 27 to 8 a.m. Dec. 28.
Nursing staff will remain available in both Lac La Biche and Smoky Lake to triage and refer patients to alternate emergency departments, and EMS will remain available to the community of Boyle in order to transport patients when necessary.
“Our ambulance service is stressed to say the least, they're not sitting there waiting to take somebody either, sometimes it takes a while. It’s definitely concerning, but I think the biggest part of the frustration for me is how do you fix it? I don’t know.”
Although the periods without physician coverage in all three centres don’t completely overlap, patients in the area can also attend healthcare centres in St. Paul and Redwater, as well as Athabasca.
The Boyle emergency department will continue to close nightly from 8 p.m. to 9 a.m. as part of the temporary change in hours due to lack of available nursing staff.
