Nenshi reacts to provincial announcement on health care

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on October 16, 2024.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Rob Miyashiro, Alberta NDP candidate for Lethbridge West, speaks alongside party leader Naheed Nenshi and impacted citizens on Tuesday across the street from the Campbell Clinic South, following Health Minister Adriana LaGrange's announcement on Primary Care Alberta.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

Rob Miyashiro, Alberta NDP candidate for Lethbridge West and Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi reacted to Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange’s announcement on Primary Care Alberta Tuesday.

“Primary Care Alberta will be the provincial health agency responsible for the oversight, coordination and delivery of some Primary Health care services,” said LaGrange during her announcement Tuesday.

Nenshi addressed the media Tuesday shortly after that announcement during a press conference across the street from the Campbell Clinic South, where two doctors recently announced they are closing their practice and are moving out of province at the end of the year, and said that the announcement from the Minister of Health which is absolutely the epitome of shuffling deck chairs on a sinking ship.

“The announcement said nothing about getting more family doctors, it said nothing about paying family doctors reasonably, it said nothing about improving people’s access to primary care. Instead, we have a new CEO and a whole set of new managers,” said Nenshi.

According the Alberta government website, the Provincial Health Agencies Act enables the transition from one regional health authority, Alberta Health Services to an integrated system of four sector-based provincial health agencies: primary care, acute care, continuing care and mental health and addiction.

“Yet another example of the UCP creating more management, creating more administration, and not actually solving the problem,” said Nenshi.

This announcement comes after two Lethbridge doctors practicing at the Campbell Clinic South announced they were closing up their practice. To this Miyashiro told reporters that this happened because of the UCP.

“We should be welcoming doctors to our community, not seeing them close-up their practice. And I have some news for the UCP, because they don’t seem to get it. It’s impossible to find a family doctor in our community,” said Miyashiro.

He said when residents look up on the Primary Care Network’s “find a doctor” tool, nothing comes up or it has very outdated information.

“Today in our city, there isn’t a single family doctor accepting new patients and that’s a tragedy. With the loss of two more doctors, where are patients supposed to go? Emergency room? We know how overcrowded emergency room is. We know that’s not the best place for people to just get after treatment,” said Miyashiro.

 For those who are losing their family doctor at the end of the year, the options are very small. With some being lucky enough to find a new doctor outside of the city, while others do not have that option due to transportation or mobility challenges.

 Jodie Asselin is one of the few lucky residents who was able to find a new family doctor after receiving the news of her and her family’s doctor leaving their practice. She told reporters that even though she was able to find a new doctor, it is not as convenient for her family as before.

 “My family of five including three children lost their family doctor when they chose to leave the Campbell clinic. I do understand that this is a national issue, but our provincial government is making things worse, not better. We were incredibly lucky to find a new family physician quickly, but their clinic is in Milk River, which means our family needs to travel 85 kilometres out of town,” said Asselin.

But not everyone is as lucky as she is, such is the case of Jacqueline Riley who is 64 years old, retired and suffers from complex medical issues, along with her husband who is also retired and is 69 years old.

Riley spoke to the Herald during a phone interview Tuesday afternoon and said that she suffers from chronic pain and losing her doctor from the Campbell Clinic will cause her health significant problems and there is no hope of getting a doctor anytime soon as there are no other doctors in Lethbridge that are taking new patients.

“I am on medication for chronic pain and I’m taking it twice a day. Walk-in doctors cannot prescribe that medication. My doctor said he can get me a refill of that medication until April. If I cannot find a doctor before then I will no longer be able to get it,” said Riley.

 She said her pain is debilitating and if she is no longer able to get that medication, she doesn’t know what will happen with her life.

 “What am I going to do? If I do not get this medication my quality of life will take a nosedive. We do not drive so we cannot drive to another community to access a new doctor,” said Riley.

She said that when she reached out to her MLA Nathan Neudorf she was “given the run around” instead of some concrete answers on what her options were.

“MLA Nathan Neudorf is not listening to me. He’s sending me rhetorical stuff like Alberta’s going to do this and Alberta’s going to do that, but I need a doctor sooner than later,” said Riley.

 She added that she had reached out by email three or four times, with Tuesday being the latest time and the response was just links to LaGrange announcements.

“There were two announcements that were made today related to health care in Alberta. Although these do not answer your immediate need of a family physician, I thought you might be interested in these announcements,” said an email sent to Riley signed by Karen Alm, constituency assistant to Nathan Neudorf.