The Medicine Hat Regional Hospital (CHAT News Photo/Ross Lavigne)

By Chris Brown

'A responsibility'

Palliser Friends of Medicare to press city leaders on health-care cuts, changes

Oct 28, 2020 | 4:25 PM

Palliser Friends of Medicare wants local leaders to make their voices heard when it comes to the cuts to health-care coming to the community.

In the past month, it’s been announced the Medicine Hat Family Medicine Maternity Clinic will be closing at the end of April due to a lack of funding, and that AHS cuts will impact jobs in laundry services and lab services as they are contracted out to third parties.

“The changes that are being imposed through health-care cuts and closures are ones that will seriously undermine the ability of Medicine Hat to attract families and quality physicians to our community,” says Avril Torrence, co-chair of Pallier Friends of Medicare. “We look to our community leaders to really attract families to this community so that we have a multi-generational populace that creates a real viable sort of atmosphere for people to want to come to.”

She adds the cuts and changes will disproportionately affect women.

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Torrence says they’ll be petitioning city council to act on citizens’ behalf against the province and these health-care cuts and closures.

“Through the government’s Municipal Act, the city has a responsibility to work toward the viability of their services for the community and we see these services being undermined by the provincial government obviously and we hope that the city council will recognize that it’s within their responsibility to actually advocate,” she said.

They want city leaders to do what they can to prevent the closure of the maternity clinic and ask that it be operated as it was previously or through sufficient government funding. And they want city leaders to work against what Torrence calls the persistent closures of public facilities in the community and stop the contracting out of publicly provided jobs in the community.

The group has met with health officials to gather information and hope to make a presentation at city council in December or January.

Torrence urges anyone who wants to help to sign the “Save the Medicine Hat Maternity Clinic” petition on change.org and join Palliser Friends of Medicare.