The Town of Drayton Valley has released the following statement regarding the consistent gaps in coverage that have been occurring at the Drayton Valley Hospital Emergency Department.
image from the Town of Drayton Valley Facebook page
Dr. Jaco Hoffman, Interim Zone Medical Director of the Central Zone for Alberta Health Services, says recruitment efforts are underway in Drayton Valley and across the province.
“As part of an ongoing recruitment process within Alberta Health Services and specifically the Central Zone, we continuously recruit physicians not only to communities in need but to all communities that present a desire for more physicians,” says Dr. Hoffman. “Currently we have three physicians that are in the process of coming to Drayton Valley. One physician is awaiting a practice-ready assessment, and the other physician is waiting for their supervised practice assessment. Following these two processes, they will be able to start in Drayton. The third physician is currently in the early steps of the recruitment process and we are now just waiting for the I.A. status to be confirmed.”
Dr. Hoffman also pointed out that work is being done to fill three vacant positions.
“On top of that, we have another three positions that have been listed for Drayton Valley. Two of them are family physicians; one was interviewed on July 17, and we are awaiting references, and the other one was sent an offer on July 16 and we are waiting for a reply back.”
Dr. Hoffman also pointed out that Drayton Valley is not the only community experiencing these gaps in coverage.
“In the current environment, we are experiencing challenges with ER coverages that are not isolated to Drayton Valley. We have many communities in the north zone, south zone and central zone that have challenges with coverage of physicians due to multiple issues including last-minute physician illness and personal priorities that physicians need to attend to. We are also seeing some burnout with physicians in the communities. We definitely have more activity at the sites, for example in Drayton Valley, they have a hospital program as well which covers the hospital on a 24/7 basis.
Janice Stewart, Chief Zone Officer of the Central Zone for Alberta Health Services, also noted that while there may not always be a doctor available at the emergency departments, nursing staff will always remain on site.
“Even though we may not have a physician available for coverage on the days we have listed, we still have our nursing staff there,” says Stewart. “Our skilled emergency department nursing staff continue to work through those 24-hour periods. They will still receive patients that come to the site and assess them to determine whether they need to be sent to an alternate site or whether they can come back the next day when the physician is available.”
Stewart also noted that EMS services remain available in the community during these gaps in coverage.
“They [nursing staff] also work very closely with our EMS partners to do any transports to alternate sites when we don’t have a physician available at Drayton Valley in the Emergency Department. The nursing staff are still there 24/7, they still see the odd patient show up and they are received and assessed and an appropriate disposition is made for them.”
While Dr. Hoffman says he cannot guarantee anything when it comes to filling gaps in coverage, he remains confident these steps will have a positive impact.
“AHS continuously provides recruitment efforts for physicians, and we have other processes in place to help mitigate these closures in terms of thinning out frequent asks for locum coverages as well as connecting with the facility medical director and the associate zone medical director to try and mitigate these ER closures as we move on. It’s something that’s near and dear to my heart. We are hopeful that our efforts will minimize these closures and obviously our goal is to have zero ER coverages.”
In a letter provided to the media, the President of the Alberta Medical Association, Dr. Paul Parks criticized the provincial government for failing to respond to the “SOS” sent out by the association in 2023.
Dr. Parks says physicians in Alberta have seen their practices disrupted, their services destabilized and are starting to feel the effects of burnout. According to a 2024 Member Opinion Tracking Survey, 81 per cent of Alberta physicians report that the healthcare system is getting worse, and 79 per cent say support to physicians for providing care has also deteriorated.
Funds were received from the federal government for primary care practice stabilization, but Dr. Parks says there have been no signs of long-term investment from the provincial government as they committed to do in the context of Budget 2024.
Dr. Parks says he and the Alberta Medical Association will continue to advocate for physicians, patients and the health care system, even as it becomes evident the system will not be able to continue without immediate government action.
“Government says that they share our concerns, but without immediate action on key components, I am extremely concerned that they do not understand our dire sense of urgency.”
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