Shadow minister hosts health care town hall in city

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on October 2, 2024.

Herald photo by Al Beeber NDP shadow minister for Health and former Minister of Health in the Rachel Notley government was in Lethbridge Tuesday for a town hall meeting with residents about health care here.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

Lethbridge residents had their voices heard about health care at a town hall staged last night in the Galt Museum by NDP shadow minister for Health Sarah Hoffman and NDP MLA Dr. Luanne Metz, who is chair of the party’s Future of Heath Care Advisory Team.

Hoffman, who served for several years as Minister of Health in Rachel Notley’s NDP government, and her colleague know health care is a huge concern in Lethbridge where thousands of residents have no access to a family physician.

In an advance interview at the West Lethbridge constituency office, Hoffman talked about the health care challenges faced in Lethbridge and across the province.

First elected in 2015, Hoffman represents the riding of Edmonton-Glenora. She served as Minister of Health from 2015-19 and also as deputy premier. And she also ran for the leadership of the party this year.

During the race for the NDP leadership she talked about health every day for six months and “I’m excited to be able to continue to do that,” she said.

During her time as minister, she worked to expand midwifery care as well as mental health and addictions support.

“Things certainly have gotten a lot worse in the last six years so I think it’s really important that the people of Lethbridge get heard, that we make sure they have a chance to talk about what their biggest priorities are,” Hoffman added.

The role of Metz is to be the NDP’s lead on that party’s plan for the future of health care, she said.

“We know that Lethbridge is supposed to be getting a med school program here at the expansion of the U of C but it seems this one is further behind than the Grande Prairie expansion,” said Hoffman.

She noted that medical school students need to shadow doctors which takes extra time and attention and with doctors here “so worked off their feet, it’s asking them to do something more. I think they’re still hammering out all those details but it sounds like Lethbridge is a little bit behind with Grande Prairie where they are with the program but I definitely support the expansion. The government, when they were announcing it, should have made sure they had space for them to learn” and should be working hard to provide mentors for the aspiring doctors, Hoffman said.

Hoffman says Lethbridge deserves better health care and a government that will make sure everyone in the area will get the services they need.

“Telling people to wait years for services is not accessible.”

Health care is strained across the province, noted Hoffman. The Alberta Medical Association negotiated a new agreement with the province in the spring and 27 weeks later, it still hasn’t been signed, she said.

“Doctors are continuing to shut down their practices in the meantime across the province so family medicine’s in crisis. They (doctors and residents) deserve to have a government and local MLAs that fight for them and re-announce things that they aren’t putting the proper effort behind to make sure they’re successful,” Hoffman said in reference to the promised cardiac care unit for Chinook Regional Hospital.

Hoffman said when the NDP was in power a physician shortage didn’t exist. In fact, she said, doctors returned their retention bonuses to be put back into the health system and a new agreement that was signed.

“We weren’t having a problem with retention. Every major municipality in Alberta, you could get a family doctor back when Rachel was premier and I was minister,” said Hoffman.

Within weeks of an agreement being reached with physicians, it was signed, she recalled.

“When you want to get something done and you have the political will, you get it done.”

Hoffman has concerns that the time being taken to reach a deal with physicians is not a good sign for health care in the province, noting other contracts are coming up for renewal.

“This doesn’t bode well for the future of health care if these guys keep stalling and delaying which seems to be their current strategy.”

Hoffman says things like pharmacare and dental care should be expanded so people on fixed incomes can get the care they need.

Hoffman says it’s important for Albertans to have access to all public health care including abortion services.

“There’s a huge looming cloud over women’s health in North America and it started with Donald Trump appointing a bunch of judges in the states and rolling back the right to those health services south of the border. Definitely, there are a lot of people on our side of the border who feel empowered right now to roll back access to health care services,” Hoffman said.

Attracting more doctors and restoring stability to the health care system will depend on several considerations, she said.

“Number One, we need that agreement signed between doctors and the province. The province needs to step up and actually get out their pen and sign that agreement because it’s causing chaos right across the province” with many physicians closing their practices or leaving Alberta.

Secondly, the government “needs to hit the gas on this expansion here in Lethbridge to have the med school here and invest in the capital that we need in the announcements that they have already made like the cardiac cath lab so that we can get the care that we need closer to home.”

And thirdly, the province needs to mind its own business about women’s health and make sure it is properly funded,” added Hoffman.

“Stop flirting with extreme sections of your party and provide care for all Albertans.”

Reporter Alex Noad was covering last night’s meeting with details coming on Thursday.