Officials with Alberta Health Services were met with some tough questions from Milk River residents Wednesday night at an engagement session open to the public.
The meeting was hosted to address ongoing concerns about periodic closures of the local emergency department and the lack of physicians available.
Beth Kappelar moved to Milk River eight months ago and said it’s been disappointing to see the lack of consistency in medical care.
“Most of the time they aren’t running because we seem to be losing our doctor, and one of the reasons we moved to this community was because there was a handy hospital and a doctor so, it is a concern.”
Dr. Aaron Low, medical director for AHS in the South Zone, said a new physician has been hired for the area. but they won’t be here before the current doctor leaves. That means the emergency department will be left in limbo for the time being.
“We know that there is going to be some periods where we are not going to be able to keep the ER open. We wanted people to know that, but we wanted them to hear and know that we are doing everything we could to try and maintain things the best we could,” added Low.
Area resident George Henline said now that a doctor has been found, residents will do what they can to encourage the new doctor to stay long term.
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“As a community, we will do everything we can to welcome that physician with open arms.”
AHS is also looking at changing the model of how physicians are paid.
Currently there is a fee for service model and it is working to develop an Alternative Relationship Plan (ARP) which could mean more than one doctor.
“We are hopefully going to get two, and I think we will probably be able to achieve that so we will see, but if we can say this is what your income would be and it’s somewhat guaranteed, where in a fee for service it wouldn’t be, then they are more likely to say: ‘Hey I’ll consider Milk River,'” said Low.
AHS is also looking at recruiting a nurse practitioner who could take some of the responsibility off of the doctors.
In the meantime, EMS services will continue to support emergency care until new measures are put in place.