Dr. Gerry Prince is warning of a reduction in obstetric services in the city if provincial healthcare changes go through. (CHAT News photo)

By Alex McCuaig

Docs Mad

Docs prescription to government: rethink changes to healthcare

Mar 5, 2020 | 4:54 PM

MEDICNE HAT, AB – Despite a growing chorus of Alberta doctors calling on the UCP government to rethink changes to provincial healthcare, Premier Jason Kenney and Health Minister Tyler Shandro are standing their ground.

During oral question period today Premier Kenney refuted the notion of any cuts to healthcare while Minister Shandro stated yesterday there has been a lot of misunderstandings about changes to provincial healthcare by Alberta’s health professionals.

For 33 years, Dr. Gerry Prince has been the first face thousands of Hatters have ever seen after delivering countless babies in the city.

And now Prince says the city is at risk of losing half of its delivery doctors due to changes to physician compensation following the province unilaterally ending its negotiated agreement with the Alberta Medical Association.

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“About half of our physicians have said if these proposed changes, proposed cuts come through as they are now, that it makes it impractical for them to be able to continue,” said Prince. “So it means we lose half our community physicians that are providing obstetric care and we can’t do that for any length of time with half of our workforce, it’s not practical.”

Prince says there could be better ways to save money in Alberta’s health care system, but when it comes to obstetrics in a rural setting, “it’s not always justified by dollars and sense. The volume of deliveries sometimes don’t justify having people there all the time. But there are no options for women in Medicine Hat.”

And both overall healthcare provision as well as obstetric services were issues raised in a letter by 17 doctors to the Brooks Bulletin on Wednesday.

“We will face doctor shortages, our ER will be further overburdened, obstetrical patients will travel further, long-term costs will be higher and, most importantly, patients will suffer,” read the letter outlining why doctors in Brooks are calling on the government to stop the changes in healthcare.

That letter is in additional to all 36 emergency room doctors in Medicine Hat and Lethbridge signing on to a statement outlining the risks to healthcare of the provincial government’s changes.

Changes to Alberta’s healthcare system are set to begin on April 1.