'The community is tired of waiting': Rally in Red Deer calls on province for health-care funding

Albertans protesting a lack of health-care funding to the Red Deer Region Hospital Centre (RDRHC) say they've been patient with the province but the time has come for a "concrete plan"to addressthe needs of the community.

Friends of Medicare, a health-care advocacy group,held a rally in Red Deer Sundaycalling for Alberta Health Services to meet a needs assessmentby the province which showsthe hospital is short three operating rooms and more than 100beds.

• Doctors say Red Deer Regional Hospital short more than 100 beds and 3 operating rooms

"I think what people are asking is for basically for [the needs assessment]to be readdressed and I think the community is tired of waiting," saidSandra Azocar, executive director of Friends of Medicare.

"There havebeen many studies that havebeen done on the community's needs, so it's time for action."

Azocarsaid the hospital's funding issues dates back decades to the former PC government, butresidents are calling on the NDP government for a plan that "recognizes the urgency" in the central zone.

Dr. Paul Hardy, a general surgeon at theRDRHC, said the province have allocated$4.5 billionover the nextfour years for health-care projects in the province but "not a single dollar is specifically earmarked" for the central zone.

Hardysaid the hospitalprovides servicesto more than 450,000Albertans, upfrom around 300,000 in the last 10 years.But many patients, specifically those with heart problems,are transported toCalgary or Edmonton for treatment.

"It's becoming increasingly difficult to deliver the care that central Albertans deserve,"Hardy said."We feel central Albertans have been shortchanged on the infrastructure spending over the last 10, 15 years."

'It's certainly a needs thing'

In 2016, doctors at the hospital sounded the alarmover AHS statistics suggesting heart attack patients in central Alberta had a47 per cent higher mortality rate than people in Calgary in 2014-15.

The hospital can't perform cardiac catheterization, a procedure in which a hollow tube is inserted through an artery to the heart to assess and unblock restricted arteries.

"One person that dies because they don't have access to health care is too much,"Azocar said. "So it's not a quantifiable kind of thing, but it's certainly a needs thing."

"And we have a government who has said that they're committed to our public health-care system, and this is one of those communities that needs help."

Hardy saidcentral Albertansalso have the longest wait timesfor elective surgery in the province and theRDRHChas moved at least5,000 operations to other facilities in the province.

'It didn't have to happen'

One cardiac patient who required transport to another city is also a doctor at the hospital.

Dr. Muhammad Shafiq had a heart attack during a shift at the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre last year. With no cardiaccatheterizationfacility in Red Deer,Shafiqwas transported to Calgary for treatment.

Shafiq suffered a second heart attack on the way to Calgary, something his wifeKanizsaid could have been avoided.

"It's a blessing that he's alive,"Kanizsaid in August. "But it didn't have to happen, the second heart attack didn't have to happen had we have had the services here."

Red Deer City CouncillorKen Johnston also knows the struggles faced by patients face in the central zone.

Johnston's wife, Isabelle, suffered a major heart attack last November. She was transported and stabilized at the RDRHC, but without the facilities in Red Deer,shewas transported to the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary.

Isabelle spent the next few months in the hospital where she died from complications related to her heart attack. Ken said he would spend hours every day by her side and saw the gaps in service at the RDRHCfirst-hand.

"The 100 days that I spent in the ICU I would have seen maybe 20, 25 heart attacks [from the central zone]," Johnston said, adding patients waiting for rooms would be bedded in hallways or lounges.

"This is not just a cardiac issue where we have to put money into a building. We have to consider the rehabilitation costs by not doing this."

In a release,Health Minister Sarah Hoffman said the province acknowledgestheneed for "timely access to high quality cardiac care" in rural communities.

"Work is now underway on an approach to assess the needs of small urban communities when it comes to interventional cardiac services," Hoffman said."This approach will be evidence-based and align with best practice both nationally and abroad."

Johnston said he would like to see a health-care conference heldin Red Deer so the community can voice their concerns to AHS and find solutions to hospital's growing needs.

• MORE ALBERTA NEWS |'I'm not dying today': Teen who lost mother to grizzly chased by bear herself
• MORE ALBERTA NEWS |RCMP release sketches of Red Deer carjacking suspects