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Patients should be number one focus

While St. Paul and area is fortunate to boast a brand new, beautiful Wellness Centre, a new building unfortunately does not resolve all of the issues with access to health care that locals face.

While St. Paul and area is fortunate to boast a brand new, beautiful Wellness Centre, a new building unfortunately does not resolve all of the issues with access to health care that locals face.

The new building and the support of the Lakeland Primary Care Network may have helped doctors choose to remain in St. Paul, but unhappiness with professional circumstances has been cited before by past doctors as reasons to leave. Dr. Florence Akindele is the latest doctor to do so, leaving a hole to fill for obstetrics-gynecology in St. Paul. The loss of every doctor is a blow to the area, as it can already be very challenging to get medical appointments when needed, but the loss of a specialist is particularly unfortunate as it means more people may have to leave the community to get specialized care until that niche is filled once again.

On a separate but related note is the issue of Alberta Health Services, which oversees provincial health care delivery; this provincial wide authority can also cause frustrations to staff who may see better ways of doing things or providing health care get snarled up in bureaucracy, miscommunication, and delays.

Thus far, the NDP provincial government has shown no interest in changing the Alberta Health Services structure; in the lead-up to the last provincial election, while the Wildrose campaigned on the promise to restore more local decision-making in health care, the NDP government noted that disbanding AHS could bring further disorganization to health care services, and that it would keep the superboard structure.

Now, provincial health leaders are looking at “operational best practice” for the superboard, which may mean streamlining services to shave money off its budget. In an already strained system, this has sparked fears among unions and advocacy groups of cost-cutting, job losses, and fears of undermining top quality health care delivery.

At the end of the day, the number one focus should not be the bottom line and should not be the fear of shaking up a plainly failing system. Everyone is impacted by the quality of health care, including health care professionals, politicians and everyday Albertans – all of whom need to champion the fact that the first priority should be what’s best for patients. Finding solutions means working backwards from that main reference point, every time.




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