AHS Extends Closure of Tofield Emergency Department

AHS Extends Closure of Tofield Emergency Department

Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser

Alberta Health Services, (AHS) announced on Dec. 29 that the Tofield Health Centre Emergency Department will remain closed overnights until February 2023.

It will continue to be closed from 8 pm to 8 am seven days a week and is open from 8 am to 8 pm. The temporary closure first came into effect on Dec. 1.

Andrea Thain Liptak, Senior Operating Officer for Central Zone rural acute care, said they had hoped the closure would only last a month, but with a 40 percent vacancy of RN positions at the health centre, that would not be possible.

Thain Liptak said the temporary closure is a last resort, and a hard decision, but one they had to make in order not to compromise patient and staff safety at the facility. In general, there are staffing challenges at other AHS sites. Rural areas are especially prone to high turnover as staff tend to migrate to larger urban centres.

“We’re doing everything we can to stabilize the workforce in rural areas.” She said they are working on recruitment and retention and supporting existing staff, and, “Where we can’t fill positions we contract to other agencies.”

Thain Liptak said patients presenting to the emergency department during the hours of closure are assessed and if they require transportation via ambulance they are diverted to facilities in Camrose, Viking, Lamont or Edmonton.

Beaver County Reeve Kevin Smook

(News Advertiser/File Photo)

Since the temporary closure, Thain Liptak said 12 people have presented, and all but one required non-urgent care. Patients are asked to call 911 if they have a medical emergency and to call Health Link at 811 for non-emergency health-related questions.

Beaver County Reeve Kevin Smook commented on the temporary closure by stating that, “No one wants to be without a readily available emergency department. People will be impacted on various levels depending on how serious their situation is.

My understanding is that this is a result of a staffing shortage and the only short term solution is to successfully recruit more healthcare professionals to fill the void. From a community perspective, our area attraction and retention committee teamed up with RhPAP to host a skills day for high school students on November 30th at the Ryley Community Centre. The aim is to attract students to a career in healthcare, hoping that once trained they will work and live in rural Alberta.

At the recent Rural Municipalities Association Conference in Edmonton, Camrose County Reeve Cindy Trautman and I spoke with Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides, advocating for an increased role for nurse practitioners and also pushing for the return of the nursing program to the University of Alberta Augustana Campus in Camrose. It was discontinued following the 2020 provincial budget. Bringing the nursing program back to Augustana would be a step in the right direction as students would train in rural Alberta and hopefully stay here.”

Smook said he has yet to receive a response from the Minister of Advanced Education to date regarding the request.

He concluded by saying, “Unfortunately, I don’t see a quick fix to this, other than successfully recruiting additional healthcare professionals.”

Tofield Health Centre

(Rob Armstrong/Via Google Images)