Widow calls for urgent care centre in Sylvan Lake

A woman in Sylvan Lake is demanding action after her husband died following his collapse outside a locked clinic last month.

Brent Boychuk, 49, fell ill on Aug. 18 while he was building a new house in the town about 25 kilometres west of Red Deer.

His daughter Brianne took him to two clinics in Sylvan Lake. The first was closed because it was a Saturday afternoon.A second clinic wasalso closed because thedoctor was out of town.

That's when Boychuk collapsed. Brianne Boychuk performed CPR and called 911, but her father was dead by the time paramedics got him to Red Deer.

Annie Boychuk believes her husband would have survived if he had received prompt medical attention.

"If there was a clinic here, an urgent trauma centre here, he would have been here," she said.

Sylvan Lake Mayor Susan Samson says the town has been asking the province for an urgent care centre for the past 20 years.

She has spoken to the health minister about a facility that would be open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., but no promises have been made.

"We need the commitment from Alberta Health Services to recognize that urgent care is a priority for this area and to put the operating money in place to get us to work on that," she said.

Kerry Towle, theWildrose MLA for Innisfail-Sylvan Lake, plans to lobby the government for better care.

"To have anybody die on the doorsteps of a physician's office ... is just a tragedy in itself," she said.

No one from Alberta Health Services was available to comment on Monday.