Closure of maternity ward in Banff set to go to court

CALGARY- The fight to keep the only maternity ward in Banff open is far from over.

The province’s plan to close the ward in Mineral Springs Hospital has upset expectant moms, who now have to drive to Canmore Hospital.

“I can see the hospital from my house but I can’t go there,” complains Tracy LeBlanc, who is due in less than a month. “It’s stressful because I have fast labours, and now my husband has to pack me up and drive me 30 minutes away on a highway.”

Last year, 51 babies were born in Banff, while 267 were born in Canmore.

The Canmore Hospital specializes in obstetrics, which was given as a reason for the closure, but that wasn’t good enough for new mom Sharon Camia. During two visits to the Banff emergency ward she was told the pain she was experiencing was nothing serious. But on her third visit, that changed.

“I didn’t know I was already giving birth that time,” she says. “They should have admitted me there.”

Camia was in labour—three months too soon. Luckily, Banff’s only doctor specializing in obstetrics was in town the morning Camia went into labour.

“If we had the obstetrical unit there, she might have been sent to the floor where we have obstetrical nurses who are more specialized,” Dr. Jane Fowke explains. “They could have put her on a monitor to see if she was contracting. I think we might have been able to pick it up sooner.

“This is a concern. I’m still around, but if we continue not to do obstetrics here you aren’t going to get another doctor to move here who does, because they won’t deliver here, so you’ll lose those essential skills.”

Camia’s daughter was delivered safely, but is still being cared for at the Foothills Hospital in Calgary.

The decision to close the ward is set to go before the Court of Queen’s Bench, with a judicial review scheduled for June 20.