Medicine Hat hosptial's ER Dr. Paul Parks speaking out against changes to Alberta healthcare Wednesday. (CHAT News photo)

By Alex McCuaig

Doctors letter

Emergency room doctors: UCP is putting future of Albertans health at risk

Mar 4, 2020 | 5:02 PM

MEDICNE HAT, AB – All thirty-six emergency room doctors from Medicine Hat and Lethbridge are calling on the UCP government to return to the negotiating table to avoid, “draconian and devastating effects on the foundation of Albertan’s medical care.”

The four-page letter states that doctors recognize the fiscal reality the province finds itself in and had voted to accept global decreases in fees before negotiations with the Alberta Medical Association were terminated by the government. It also adds the changes which are set to take effect on April 1, “risk rapidly destroying 20 years of health delivery progress in this province.”

Medicine Hat ER Dr. Paul Parks said the provincial government’s cuts to health care are putting Albertans on the path to a health care crisis.

“We’re really concerned that its going to have a major impact dealing with complex care issues, primary care issues and preventative medicine issues that, if neglected, are going to get more serious, more complex and pile up,” said Parks of the budget cuts, “and then have to come into the hospital for more expensive care.”

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Parks says its the provincial emergency rooms which will see the first effects of changes to the healthcare system.

“When people can’t get into the primary care physicians or they can’t access diagnostic tests or any component of the system they need to get, they end up presenting at the emergency department,” said Parks. “That then causes difficulty because we get more volume than we should have and that delays care for a bunch of people.”

During a news conference Wednesday, Health Minister Tyler Shandro says there has been a lot of misunderstandings by health professionals in the province concerning changes to the healthcare system.

“I look forward to the Alberta Medical Association helping us clarify the misunderstanding,” said Shandro.

The letter from the ER doctors states South Zone hospitals have some of the best wait times for emergency rooms in the province while being identified as also being some of the most cost effective.