The lab cuts at the Westlock hospital are set in stone, says Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock MLA Maureen Kubinec.
During the spring session of the Legislature May 14, Kubinec drew attention to the fact that 5.15 full-time-equivalent positions are being cut from lab services at the Westlock Healthcare Centre, and that the decision was made without considering the impact in rural communities.
She asked health minister Fred Horne if he would consider a six-month moratorium.
“Unfortunately that is not possible,” Horne told Kubinec during the first session of the 28th Legislature. “The changes I’ve explained are about consolidating services to make the best use of our healthcare dollars to provide high quality and sustainable lab services for Albertans. While I certainly empathize with the members of council of the Town of Westlock, I’m sure they will understand Alberta Health Services is striving to keep everyone whose position is affected working within the organization and that these reductions may be managed as much as possible through attrition.”
Despite Horne’s exchange, Westlock mayor Bruce Lennon is calling for a six-month moratorium on the cuts and an immediate meeting with Horne. At their May 13 meeting, town councillors unanimously approved a motion brought forward by Lennon to petition Horne to reconsider the closure of lab services.
In June, Alberta Health Services (AHS) is transferring services for immunocemistry, microbiology, HbA1C and glycaemia monitoring to DynaLIFE Dx. That means a patient’s test results for things like strep throat, thyroid, chlamydia, gonorrhea and insulin monitoring in diabetics are being sent into city labs.
“We don’t feel that’s the direction we should be going,” Lennon said. “We’re going to try to raise some hell and hope someone is going to react at some point because it’s unacceptable.”
The transition of lab services is geared towards saving money. However, AHS has not provided any projected savings behind this initiative. As of May 16, AHS has yet to respond to a request detailing how much money will be saved.
Kubinec said she could not ask Horne about the projected savings because she is capped at a certain number of oral questions during a sitting at Legislature.
“I only get so many questions and I was actually very fortunate that I got this one, this week, because it’s a bit of a lottery,” Kubinec explained. “I’m happy I got to ask it anyways — that’s the only good thing about this whole situation.”
She said she’ll also be meeting with county and town councillors this week.
“I know that I’m going to be meeting with the county — I’m in the constituency this week. I don’t want to say that I’ve given up hope of a reversal, but it’s not looking that optimistic at this point.”
And Lennon wasn’t satisfied with the way these decisions have been tackled or “rationalized.”
“I think what it is, is that they’re not thinking this through in terms of how this adversely effects small communities,” said Lennon. “And to suggest that somehow they’re taking from the Westlock hospital in order to prioritize somewhere else is pretty hard to take. We have healthcare needs just as well as anybody else, and this is basic healthcare needs.”
