Public has a right to know
By Letter to the Editor on April 21, 2020.
It was with great interest I read Gillian Slade’s story (South Zone AHS ready for what comes) in the April 16 edition of the News. I was especially distressed however, to note the comments as made by Katherine Chubbs, chief officer for Alberta Health Services south zone. Where Ms. Chubbs stated, “We have to be prepared for things to happen very quickly,”, and she gave information advising how many ventilators the province had in total, 509 now and 761 at then end of the month, there was no information about how many we have, or will have at the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital, the hospital that must be prepared to deal with all of South Eastern Alberta, and perhaps part of South Western Saskatchewan. Further, when asked more than once, Ms. Chubbs would not say how many COVID-19 patients there currently were in the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital, stating, “We are not able to share specific patient information unfortunately.” She then suggested the reason was because of “privacy regulations.” I call BS. Ms. Slade didn’t ask for names, just numbers. Also, in the same edition there was a story on the COVID-19 outbreak at the Kearl oilsands operation north of Fort McMurray. Here Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province’s chief medical officer of health was interviewed. Dr. Hinshaw had no problem advising that three workers tested positive and six others had been tested and were isolating. That information was no state secret. Sorry Ms. Chubbs, the citizens of South Eastern Alberta have a right to know how many people are being treated locally, and other information, especially including how many ventilators do we have here now, and how many may be expected later. Don’t tell us AHS south is ready, prove it. These are serious times and the public has a right to know what is going on. Ken Montgomery Medicine Hat 7-6
Ken, I couldn’t agree more with your thoughts on this matter! Ms Chubbs is derelict in her duties by refusing to give the citizens of the South Zone truthful information, which we are entitled to have. So called privacy regulations that she touts are, as you put it, BS and by using that as her reason, she is treating us like idiots. There is no privacy issue if names are withheld! In my opinion, by not releasing ALL facts to the public, people might either panic or let down their guard, depending what they believe she is hiding. The latter would, sadly undo all the hard work we’ve done by trying to contain the spread in our community.
With people like Ms Chubbs in charge I can’t help but ask, who’s watching the kids!
Hey Ken,
My name is Kerry Williamson, and I work in communications for Alberta Health Services.
I provided information to the Medicine Hat News yesterday (April 20), confirming that there are two patients that have tested positive for COVID-19 at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital.
I also confirmed that the two patients were admitted to the hospital late last week.
The News has yet to publish that information. That is beyond my control.
The reason that we can not give detailed numbers with regards to ventilators is that those ventilators will be moved around the province, depending on demand.
We are a provincial organization, responding to a provincial need.
We realize the importance of transparency, and the public’s right and need to know information, particularly during this challenging and unprecedented time.
Stay well.