Clugston shocked that Brooks had to pay for testing
By GILLIAN SLADE on July 30, 2020.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade Medicine Hat’s mayor is astounded that the City of Brooks had to pay to get its residents tested for COVID. “I did not know that and I was quite shocked,” said Mayor Ted Clugston. Brooks Mayor Barry Morishita attributes the success his city had in reducing the spread of COVID to two large-scale testing opportunities for those without symptoms. The testing centre was a drive-thru process with no appointment necessary. The total cost for the two testing centres, one in April and another in May, was $107,557. Brooks initiated this and Morishita thanked Premier Jason Kenney for personally ensuring that it happened. Brooks has a population of about 15,000 and Medicine Hat is about 63,000. Clugston says with that in mind the costs would be considerably more for Medicine Hat. “That would be the equivalent of Medicine Hat spending $500,000,” said Clugston. “That’s what we’re putting in to help businesses recover.” In mid April, Brooks suddenly had about 100 cases of COVID, and by May 5 there were more than 1,000. The spread slowed right down after that though, and to date the total number of cases sits at 1,123. To visualize the impact on that community, Clugston says it would be like having about 5,000 positive cases here. “I am surprised that Brooks had to pay for this,” said Drew Barnes, UCP MLA for Cypress-Medicine Hat. Barnes says early in the COVID pandemic South Korea held drive-thru testing opportunities for testing on a large scale. “If you drove through in the morning the results were texted to you that night,” said Barnes, noting that large-scale testing has been shown to be an effective way to reduce the spread of the virus. Brooks was the first community to have testing on a large scale, with about 3,500 asymptomatic individuals tested initially. Close to 10 per cent of people without symptoms tested positive. “That was one of the big turning points,” said Morishita. “Looking back I think this (type of testing) should have been offered all over the place.” Alberta Health Services says Brooks set up the location for testing, provided signage and co-ordinated traffic for the testing events. AHS provided staff, equipment and logistics during the events. AHS did not provide an answer to the question of why Brooks had to pay, nor why the premier had to advocate to see that it happened. The premier’s office was asked for comment but referred the News to AHS. Clugston applauds Brooks city council for taking the initiative but says he hopes the province is going to reimburse their city. He feels this was a health emergency that was declared by the province. “This was an Alberta Health responsibility,” said Clugston. If Medicine Hat was faced with a major outbreak of COVID, measures would have to be taken to address it. “I would see us doing whatever it took,” and go back to the province for reimbursement, said Clugston. Barnes says there are areas of the health system that are currently under utilized and money should be redirected to address situations such as mass clinic testing. “Let’s do what is best for Alberta,” said Barnes. The cost of hospitalization is high and the number of people that may have ended up in hospital if the mass testing had not been done in Brooks, could have paid for this program that Brooks council picked up, said Barnes. “It would be a cost-saving thing.” A spokesperson for AHS says 60 per cent of the COVID-19 tests currently being done in Alberta are from people without any symptoms, with 0.4 per cent testing positive. 30-29
