About 80 people attended the Mountview Health Complex open house on Dec. 4, far less than the June packed house that saw 400 attendees learn the Beaverlodge Municipal Hospital replacement would not have an emergency department.

On Nov. 25, the province announced the Mountview Health Complex will now support 24-hour urgent care.

“Alberta Health and Alberta Health Services (AHS) is under tremendous budget challenges and pressure; they're always looking for ways to make it to the end of the month with their current budget, so they will look at everything to try to find efficiencies and no doubt that was also in play with Beaverlodge,” said Travis Toews, former provincial finance minister/Grande Prairie Wapiti MLA, who said he was speaking on behalf of cuurent MLA Ron Wiebe.

Toews said that after the June meeting - which he described as a ‘Western event without a hanging’ - residents, politicians, and physicians rolled their sleeves up and got to work.

Residents shared their frustrations at the summer open house with the prospect of not having a facility open for 24 hours: Mountview would be a 16-hour Advanced Ambulatory Care Centre (AACC). Some attendees blamed local politicians of not being transparent and lying about what the replacement facility would offer.

“There was a commitment by AHS, an understanding if you will, the same services would be delivered with the new build as with the current Beaverlodge hospital, not with what it used to do, but with what it was doing today, and that understanding, I think was generally believed and supported and when we met here in June, it seemed that there had been some erosion of that ambition,” said Toews.  

Sandra Herritt, AHS senior operating officer for clinical operations in the North zone, said AHS has considered concerns raised in June.

“It was important that we listened to the community, we heard them, we took away their feedback, we've had to do some digging and some deep diving, but our goal was to advocate and advocate for what we believe the community wanted investment in and I believe that we really delivered here tonight,” she said.

The $170 million health complex was announced last December; it will have 32 lower acuity beds, an increase from 18, and house other services such as EMS, public health and homecare.

Mountview will have the capacity for four ambulances; Beaverlodge currently has two. Whether additional ambulances will be coming soon was not released.

Mockups of the new facility were on display at the community centre last week.

Herritt said Mountview would be available to patients 24 hours a day and is intended to meet the needs of those with unscheduled health needs. EMS will transport patients to Mountview or the Grande Prairie Regional Hospital (GPRH), depending on needs and urgency.

“Lower acuity care provides an alternative to higher acuity hospital stays like the GPRH and serves patients in a more stable phase of recovery,” said Herritt.

“I don’t think there’s anything that could be better than the outcome that we have right now,” said Dr. Camellia Presley, a Beaverlodge physician.

She noted that the new facility will have amenities similar to those of the GPRH, such as a lift system in rooms as well as couches that turn into beds for visitors.

Emergency Department vs. Urgent Care Centre

“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,” said Presley.

“I love the fact that we're going to be able to provide the same level of care that we provide now; I don't have to call an ambulance when we're trying to run a code, we can manage our heart attacks, we can manage our sick patients, we can manage people that are critical and get them to the places they need to be and that saves lives.”

Ahead of the June open house,  Presley sparked community outrage with a public letter stating  an AACC would not be what the community needs and would offer a different level of services than Beaverlodge Municipal Hospital.  She also warned that the AACC would impact the ability to bring physicians to the area.

“One of the things that we have struggled with as physicians is keeping our emergency open, and I do the scheduling, so there's a lot of hours that get spent on that, and it's getting easier to actually have physicians that are willing to come and stay in Beaverlodge,” said Presley.

Now, she says she is confident the 24-hour urgent care model will keep current doctors in Beaverlodge and will help attract new ones.

She said it's a two- to three-year process to bring in physicians, and now that work will not be a loss. She also looks forward to the opportunity to have medical students practice in Mountview.

“The Northern Alberta Medical program is going to be up and running in Grande Prairie next year, and we're looking at the possibility of things like becoming an Integrated Community Clerkship (ICC) site,” said Presley.

An ICC site would place third-year medical students in the community for about 42 weeks.

“I did an ICC in Fort St John; we find that people that do ICCs end up more likely to stay rural,” said Presley.

Moving into the future

“AHS continually monitors data and evaluates services and programs,” said Herritt.

She said that AHS will continually evaluate the information and data on community growth and demographics. Still, she believes the scope of services Mountview will provide will remain the same.

“We wouldn't go backwards at this point,” said Harrett.

“We're putting in the 32 beds up from the 18 beds because we know that there's an opportunity for growth in the community.”

County of Grande Prairie Reeve Bob Marshall says that since he’s been in office, residents' top priorities are roads and a new health facility.

“To have this care facility and have the 24 urgent care now is going to be fantastic,” he said.

“If you look at the West County, with the towns and everything, there are about 12,000 to 14,000 people that this facility will service; it'll take a huge load off of the emergency department within GPRH,” said Marshall.

“We're hopefully having the groundbreaking in the spring, and within a couple of years, we'll be moving into the new facility. It'll be a fantastic day when that happens.”

Beaverlodge resident Marian Brown attended the June and December meetings, saying this was the outcome she wanted.

“We've waited a long time and tried very hard to get this hospital, so I'm very happy.”

Mountview is expected to open in 2028.