Urgent health care centre meeting attracts large crowd

Bentley doctor Ron Smith was unable to attend a meeting about an urgent care centre in Sylvan Lake Jan. 18 for a very good reason.

He was working.

As the only doctor in town, Smith was busy at his Bentley clinic, while a few kilometres away a crowd filled the community centre to show their support for an urgent care centre.

Smith feared there would be a small attendance at the meeting due to the extreme cold and was pleased to learn more than 500 people filled the hall.

“That’s wonderful,” he said. “I am all in favor of an urgent care centre for Sylvan Lake. It’s ridiculous they don’t have one. It would work nicely for the Bentley and Eckville patients, as well as those in Sylvan,” he said.

Bentley Mayor Joan Dickau, who sits on an 18-member committee to promote the urgent care centre in Sylvan Lake, was also unable to attend the meeting, but she was pleased to hear the hall was packed.

“I’m glad to hear that,” she said. “It would be a good thing for us to have something that close.”

There appeared to be a sense of urgency regarding the proposed urgent care centre among the crowd who jammed themselves into the hall, filling up all available chairs and lining the walls.

Dr. Fred Janke, who has been a physician in Sylvan Lake since 1984, said the government’s 10-year-plan to have an urgent care centre in Sylvan Lake has gone on for 20 years.

“Every single time a new government came in we had to start over.”

He stressed it is important to lobby MLAs during the next provincial election expected this spring. “You don’t want to be starting over again in three or four years.”

Sylvan Lake’s Dr. Brad Bahler stressed an urgent care centre would enhance medical services in surrounding communities such as Bentley and Eckville, adding the services in these outlying areas are an integral part of the health care system.

Sylvan Lake resident Ian Oostindie said the decision would ultimately rest in the hands of all MLAs in the province and residents needed to remember to expand their lobbying efforts accordingly.

“We are citizens of Alberta and an urgent care facility here would have far reaching benefits.”

An urgent care centre would offer after-hours laboratory and diagnostic imaging services and short-term beds. It would be staffed by local doctors and open extended hours that would be determined by need and funding.

There are similar urgent care centres in Edmonton, Calgary, Okotoks and Cochrane, but none in central Alberta.

The urgent care centre committee plan to submit a proposal in the fall that is to be included in the health department’s 2013-2014 operational plans for the area.