The province announced on Monday the Mountview Health Complex in Beaverlodge will provide 24-7 urgent care services.
“Overall (the model change) will make a big difference,” Beaverlodge Mayor Gary Rycroft told the News Monday. “It would be people who would suffer and probably die in that little extra trip to Grande Prairie.”
Dr. Camellia Presley, a Beaverlodge physician, says she is “very happy” with the announcement.
“Our community needs this; we need somewhere to be in the middle of the night when your child has croup, when your child has an asthma attack; this will save lives, “ she said.
“An emergency department and having a hospital are just terminology and names, so we will, with the urgent care centre, be able to do the same things that we are doing right now with our hospital,” she said.
Presley said Mountview will be a much better setting for patients as it will offer more privacy (in lieu of curtains there will be walls) and “physicians will have areas to run codes and traumas in and not have to deal with aging equipment and infrastructure”.
Rycroft said Mountview will not have a surgical unit like a true emergency department but would have staff available to help those in need 24 hours a day.
He said that physicians are currently on-call during the night and “that's the way it's happened for forever, and (AHS) were going to take that away because data says something different.”
Data is “just paperwork,” he said that may not reflect the large area the current hospital serves.
Rycroft said some patients will travel over 40 minutes before arriving at the Beaverlodge hospital; another 43 kilometres to Grande Prairie could prove fatal.
During the summer information session, Dr. Presley also flagged problems with the AHS data.
Presley referred to data indicating 76 per cent of local residents use the Beaverlodge’s emergency department, which stated a nine per cent decline in the last 10 years at an average of one to two visits per night to the emergency room.
Eighty-five per cent of those visits did not require immediate interventions, according to AHS.
AHS also indicated that over the last 15 years, inpatient volume at the Beaverlodge hospital has decreased by 50 per cent.
Presley said admitting new patients requiring acute care has been difficult when “we are chronically blocked by long-term-care patients.”
“If we can’t move patients, we can’t admit people to our emergency department,” she said.
The $170 million health complex was announced last December.
Opposition was loud and strong at the July public session attended by about 350 people and hosted by AHS when attendees learned that the facility would not have a 24-hour ED and would operate as a 16-hour AACC.
Local physicians spoke against the AACC.
“Physicians will not work in an AACC,” said Presley during the summer information session. “Zero doctors have agreed to this.”
Presley, who is also in charge of emergency doctor scheduling in Beaverlodge, said current ED closures are due to the supply of available doctors and an AACC would result in fewer physicians wanting to practice in Beaverlodge.
Now, Presley said she will be busy as she will being staying on call for Mountview and she believes it will keep physician attraction and retention alive in Beaverlodge.
“We have a new potential recruit coming in the next year that will now come instead of not coming, so I think that's a positive thing for sure, and hopefully we can keep working on bringing in others.”
In Monday’s media release, the province said “extensive consultations with the community, its leadership and stakeholders – including residents and local physicians – shaped the decision to include 24-7 urgent care services, ensuring the facility better meets the needs of Beaverlodge and surrounding areas.”
Rycroft says more credit should go to local physicians for their expertise in helping push through the model change.
He noted the town was advocating but Beaverlodge physicians brought the knowledge and basis behind what needed to be done.
Rycroft said that town council never wanted or supported a 16-hour facility and that town administration “fought hard” for the outcome revealed this week.
Information session in December
Another information session is scheduled with the community on Dec. 4 at 6 p.m. at the Beaverlodge Community Centre.
Rycroft says the session will include schematics of the building to help residents understand what it will look like and help debunk any misinformation.
The province said the Mountview Health Complex is currently in its design phase.
Rycroft said that changing to a 24-hour facility does not require any changes to the facility's design.
“This new clinical services plan aligns with what we heard from the community, and we are confident that this model will continue to support the needs of our community,” said Ron Wiebe, Grande Prairie-Wapiti MLA.
Mountview will replace the 68-year-old Beaverlodge Hospital and will include 32 inpatient beds, lab services, diagnostic imaging, and emergency medical care.
The province says the facility is expected to open in 2028 and will be developed on the land donated by Doris McFarlane.
“Doris was committed to the continued provision of health care in Beaverlodge,” Jim and Judy McFarlane (son and daughter-in-law) said in the release. “She was never focused on what the facility would be called but rather the services to be provided to the community. We feel Doris would be pleased with the new complex and the 24-7 urgent care model.”
The P3 project is being developed by the Town of Beaverlodge and Landrex. AHS will be the anchor tenant.
With files from Austin Payeur
This story has been updated from the previously posted version.