If elected, NDP candidates Gwendoline Dirk and Cathy Hogg hope to implement a family health care team model in Medicine Hat.--NEWS PHOTO KENDALL KING
kking@medicinehatnews.com
NDP candidates for both Medicine Hat’s electoral ridings joined forces Tuesday to speak on the lack of family physicians in the city, and share their party’s plans to address such.
Cypress-Medicine Hat candidate Cathy Hogg and Brooks-Medicine Hat candidate Gwendoline Dirk assert that limited local access to family physicians, and other medical providers, is a signal that an Alberta health-care crisis is ongoing.
Hogg pointed out that family physicians are necessary to administer routine checkups, address patient concerns and manage chronic conditions, yet Medicine Hat only has one family physician accepting new patients: Dr. S. Azizuddin, who has just recently opened a practice in the city.
Hogg stressed the lack of family physicians has dire consequences for individuals and the community, as reduced access delays detection and treatment of health conditions, as well as causes overload of the hospital system as community members are forced to seek alternative access points for care.
While Hogg and Dirk are worried for constituents without a family doctor, two of whom spoke publicly about their experiences during Tuesday’s address, both candidates are confident such issues will be addressed through the NDP’s plan to build 10 new family health-care teams across the province, including one in Medicine Hat.
The teams would be comprised of a network of primary care professionals all based in one given area, including but not limited to family physicians, nurses, mental health professionals, paramedics, pharmacists, social workers, dietitians, physiotherapists and midwives.
“The health-care workers will have a team to support them to operate in an effective setting, avoid burnout and manage the patient load in a more efficient way,” said Dirk, pointing to the Taber Clinic as a successful example.
Dirk asserted the family health-care teams model would reduce expenses within the province’s health-care system as the network of medical professionals would be able to easily refer patients to the health-care provider most apt to assist them. She stated the model would also help alleviate patient overload and improve system efficiency, thus creating a more desirable working environment for medical professionals already based in Alberta and those considering the province.
While Dirk promised Medicine Hat would be “top of the list” to receive a family health-care team, Brooks is not currently slated for such.
Nevertheless, she and Hogg said the implementation of such locally would still benefit Brooks and surrounding rural areas, as it would concentrate an array of health-care practitioners in one area and allow for better communication between such, so to reduce the number of visits each patient would have to make.
The pair called out current Brooks-Medicine Hat MLA and Alberta Premier, Danielle Smith, on her byelection promises to address issues facing local health care, which they say she has fallen short of.
Smith visited her riding last December to help open a pharmacist-led health clinic in Brooks, but much of the rest of her work to address issues in health care has been carried out in relation to her role as premier.
Since taking office, Smith and her government put forward a Health Care Action Plan, which aims to reduce emergency department, surgery and EMS wait times and develop long-term system reforms; have removed the daily cap on the number of visits a physician can bill; have proposed Health Spending Accounts, the details of which are not yet clear; and recently has signed a federal health funding deal which will see $24 billion allocated to Alberta’s health-care system over the next 10 years.
