Lac La Biche County Mayor Paul Reutov has clarified some of the statements — and some of the figures — from a meeting last Friday where he announced increased numbers of healthcare professionals coming to the community.
During a lunch event at the Lac La Biche Legion on Friday where guest speaker MLA Brian Jean was presenting a regional and provincial update, Reutov dropped the news that five doctors and two new nurses were confirmed for the community. At the meeting, hosted by the Lac La Biche and District Chamber of Commerce, the mayor told a room of mainly business owners the "good news" on the local healthcare front.
"We've attracted some doctors and some nurses.... it has taken a lot of work, more than I expected," he said, referencing an update letter from Alberta Health Services that was received by the municipality just hours before the lunch event. "I understand there are five doctors that are now confirmed and two nurses... that have been confirmed."
The news got even better a few minutes later, as former Lac La Biche County Mayor, and current Regional Health Foundation member Omer Moghrabi said there were actually four nurses confirmed.
Revised math
Two days later, however, Reutov contacted the Lac La Biche POST newsroom to say that while it's still a good news item, the comments need to be clarified. The mayor — describing his announcement on Friday as more of an "update off the cuff" — says the five physicians are not in addition to other professionals currently being recruited, but are the new total.
"The community currently has just four physicians," with one of those added as recently as August 15, he said on Monday morning in a phone interview with the newspaper. The announcement he was relaying at Friday's meeting was that a fifth physician had now been confirmed.
"One more physician has been confirmed by Alberta Health Services for the community — bringing the total to five," he clarified. "The correction is that it's not an additional five, it's a total of five ... and four nurses."
The additional resources are expected to help reduce some of the workload for existing medical staff and reduce service disruptions at the local hospital. For more than a year, those disruptions have affected patient care across the community, including the W. J. Cadzow hospital's emergency department. In several hospitals across the region, reduced nursing staff has forced emergency wards to close for overnight or weekend shifts. Reutov is pleased to see the addition of the nursing positions in the recent announcement for Lac La Biche County.
"There are four additional (Registered Nurses) to keep the emergency ward open 24 hours," he said.
Lots of work
While the recent news is a step in the right direction, there is still more to do to get the community's medical staffing levels to where they need to be.
"The required total is 12 physicians, so even with the positive news, we have a long way to go," Reutov said, thanking community members, council, municipal administration, and existing medical staff for their hard work. "The local doctors and the (local recruitment and retention committee) are working very hard and continue their efforts on recruiting additional physicians ... There is a lot of credit to the doctors who are pulling long hours currently, and they are actively involved ... behind the scenes as well."
Reutov didn't have a specific timeline for when additional medical staff would be working in the community. He said there is a continuing push to recruit more health professionals — with the possibility of more updates in the near future.
The Lac La Biche POST newsroom did send a message to officials with Alberta Health Services for comment, but have yet to receive a response.
