The Thanksgiving weekend will begin with a disruption to services at Lac La Biche's W. J. Cadzow Health Centre.
Alberta Health Services is announcing that the hospital's emergency department will be temporarily without on-site physician coverage for 24 hours beginning at 8 a.m. Friday, October 6 and going to 8 a.m. Saturday, October 7.
Patients are asked to call 911 if they have a medical emergency. EMS will remain available to the community and will be re-routed to surrounding healthcare centres, and the Alberta health-link 811 medical call centre remains available.
Nursing staff will remain on-site in the emergency department providing triage, assessments and referrals for patients to alternate emergency departments in surrounding communities, as needed.
If coverage is found, disruptions may be cancelled. This is a temporary measure and AHS is working hard to ensure local residents continue to have access to the care they need during this time, say AHS officials.
This is the second short-duration disruption in two weeks at the Lac La Biche hospital. Over the last 18 months, more than a dozen similar disruptions have taken place at the hospital. Other facilities across the Lakeland have experienced similar disruptions to to a wide-spread shortage of physicians. The Lac La Biche region currently has five full time physicians. Recently, Lac La Biche County Mayor Paul Reutov said at least 12 physicians are required to adequately serve the area.
