Palliative program director didn’t know about closure

By Gillian Slade on October 28, 2017.

gslade@medicinehatnews.com @MHNGillianSlade

The decision to close the palliative care wing at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital came as a shock to the director of the program.

“All I know about this is what I’ve heard through the grapevine and read in the paper,” Dr. Josh Foley, director of the palliative care program, told the News.

“I have had absolutely no discussion with administration about this. I really haven’t been informed exactly what the intent is or what is going to be put in place to replace the palliative care program as it exists right now. I have not been privy to any discussions whatsoever about this matter.”

The News revealed in a story Thursday that AHS had decided to close ward Six West, which includes up to 12 palliative care beds and about 30 beds mainly occupied by seniors waiting for placement in the community, often referred to as alternative living care beds. AHS said about 55 staff are affected but will be offered alternative placements.

The decision was reached because MHRH’s palliative care beds and Carmel Hospice in St. Joseph’s were only used at about 50 per cent capacity, said Katherine Chubbs, chief zone officer for AHS south zone. Only having Carmel Hospice will mean better utilization of beds.

Additional resources will be made available to patients to have palliative care in their own home, said Chubbs. In rare cases where someone in palliative care needs to be in hospital this will be accommodated elsewhere in the hospital.

Foley said he is not in a position to speak about how care for palliative care patients will change.

“I am attempting to organize meetings with administration to discuss how our program will be changed and what we can do to provide appropriate care,” said Foley. “I’m very disappointed that input of the physicians who provide the service was not requested. At this point in time I’ve no idea what direction to go with our program because quite honestly I haven’t had an opportunity to speak to anybody to see what their plans are.”

Chubbs says Foley’s work is admired and respected and that he is an important member of the clinical leadership team.

“It was always our intention to discuss the changes to palliative care with Dr. Foley, once we had first talked to our frontline staff whose jobs are directly impacted by these changes,” Chubbs said on Friday afternoon. “We felt it was important to speak to those staff members first, to discuss their concerns, and make sure they would know there would be no job loss.”

Chubbs says she met with Foley later on Friday.

Any changes planned for Carmel Hospice at St. Joseph’s, which will be the only facility in town offering palliative care is not yet clear.

“Covenant Health is privileged to be providing quality, palliative and end-of-life care, providing comfort and support to individuals and their families,” reads a statement from Covenant Health, the operator of the hospice, in response to queries. “We continue to work collaboratively with Alberta Health Services in the delivery of health services to the community of Medicine Hat.”

There are plans to meet next week with “all physicians leaders involved in palliative care, to further discuss how we can transition services from the hospital to St. Joseph’s, as carefully and effectively as possible”, said Chubbs. “We plan to transition all palliative services by the end of the year.”

For Lewis Schile, whose wife Della was in palliative care at MHRH just prior to her death in July, these new plans are not good news.

“The care that she received there was absolutely outstanding,” said Schile. “I am really disappointed that the people of Medicine Hat will be losing that.”

Della had been cared for at home but she wanted to go into palliative care near the end, he explained.