BARRHEAD - Amidst news of local physician shortages, nursing cuts and a new provincial emphasis on fiscal restraint, several members of the Alberta Health Services (AHS) leadership team for the North Zone hosted a public meeting in Barrhead Dec. 5 to discuss ways of improving health care within the community.
They were joined at the AHS Community Conversation, which was hosted at the Barrhead Senior’s Drop-in Centre, by about 20 or so Barrhead residents who were linked to local municipalities, or the health care system.
Nicole Merrifield, director of community engagement and external relations for the North Zone, pointed out that 2019 marks the 10th anniversary of AHS.
While AHS has received national and international acclaim for being a top employer in terms of diversity and for youth, Merrifield said AHS recognizes that it hasn’t achieved everything it needs to.
“We know there’s a lot of work left to do; we know that there are some important steps that need to be taken. And conversations like this are part of that,” she said.
Merrifield said the Barrhead meeting was the 17th Community Conversation held this year and the third that week.
“Our goal with Community Conversations is to get out to as many communities as we can across all of the zones and have a conversation with you about your concerns and your ideas, and to look for opportunities where we can work better together, where AHS can come alongside as a partner and work with you to improve health and wellness in your own community,” said Merrifield.
“Tonight is really about having a conversation. We’re not here to talk about bricks and mortar, or specific services. We’re really here to talk about how, together, we can shift our focus from one of illness to one of wellness.”
The participants were split up into small groups and asked to workshop answers to several questions, including “What are the major issues facing health care in the community” and “What role can your organization play in promoting health and wellness.”
Merrifield said the responses given that night would be collected and collapsed into a document called What We Heard, which would be forwarded on to the North Zone leadership team.
As well, the reports would be shared with AHS’ Health and Business Planning Unit, which looks at health care services from a provincial perspective and makes decisions about changes to health care.
The reports would also be e-mailed to the participants in the workshops and shared online at together4health.albertahealthservices.ca.
“It’s part of our commitment to helping people to see what you’re sharing here tonight is actually being acted upon,” Merrifield said.
Besides the group exercises, the meeting also featured a quick presentation by chief zone officer Gregory Cummings.
Cummings talked about the North Zone and the difficulties posed by serving the largest of the five zones in terms of geographical size — the North Zone runs from border to border and encompasses most of northern Alberta.
“As you can imagine, it’s a challenging zone to manage. It requires a lot of travel to keep a finger on the pulse of what’s happening,” he said, noting he is based in Westlock.
To make it manageable, Cummings noted the North Zone is divided into four sections, each overseen by senior operating offices.
Cummings noted the North Zone has its own region-specific strategic plans that take into account the realities of health care in a rural setting, although there is definitely some standardization in terms of services.
He acknowledged that provincial health care is now in a “period of fiscal restraint” under the new United Conservative Party government, which has different priorities from the old NDP government.
As a result, they are now doing a “refresh” of their strategic and operational plans to determine what their new priorities will be in the new political environment.
He also acknowledged Barrhead’s recent shortage of family physicians following the closure of the Barrhead Medical Centre this month.
“Physician recruitment and retention, and recruitment and retention of health professionals in general, is … not a new challenge to the health care system in Canada, particularly in rural and remote areas. We know that that’s a fairly big concern here.”
On a related front, there was also a presentation by Alicia Fox, one of six regional consultants with the non-profit organization known as the Rural Health Professions Action Plan (RhPAP). Fox noted she represents a northeast zone that encompasses Barrhead and Swan Hills.
As the name would imply, RhPAP is largely focused on helping rural communities recruit and retain health professionals, usually in conjunction with local groups like the Barrhead Attraction and Retention Committee (BARC).
“It really is a community effort and you know your communities best, so you know what assets to highlight and some of the things you can really focus on,” she said.
She indicated they also help to co-ordinate rural community educational opportunities and events. One such example was the Skills Weekend hosted in Barrhead back in the summer, which was partially sponsored by RhPAP.
During the Skills Weekend, post-secondary students were invited out to the community and were shown how medical procedures were carried out in a rural facility.
“Maybe they came from a rural community, or maybe they’ve never been into the rural environment, but either way, their perspective has changed. They’re studying to be an RN or they’re studying to be an ultrasound technician. How does that connect to a rural community?”
“We do adhere to a community development philosophy and we foster the building of stronger and more vibrant rural communities. So that what that means is that we’re really asset-focused,” Fox said.
She indicated RhPAP also connects medical students in connecting with landlords so they can access accommodations in their communities.
Finally, Fox also mentioned that RhPAP also serves as the voice for rural communities at “several different tables … at different levels.”
She added, “You can be assured that if we hear a concern, we do our very best to bring it forward.”
Fox noted there is a continuum involved in attraction and retention of health professionals.
“It really isn’t a one-time piece. You can’t do one thing and then say, ‘OK, that’s it, we’ve attracted and retained and now they’re all here.’”
