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Alberta Health Services

Alberta Health Services to create overall healthcare plan for South Zone

Nov 10, 2022 | 2:32 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Alberta Health Services is inviting residents to community health care planning engagement sessions throughout the South Zone.

These sessions allow AHS to listen to what the resident’s healthcare needs are.

They are also intended to provide key stakeholder input into the development of the South Zone healthcare plan, which is planned to serve the communities for the next 10-15 years.

“In the past, we looked at Brooks and Bassano, we’ve looked at Medicine Hat, we looked at pockets within the South Zone, but we don’t have an overall South Zone plan,” says Linda Iwasiw, Alberta Health Services, chief zone officer.

Iwasiw adds that residents travel between communities, so AHS is excited to have an overall South Zone healthcare plan.

Iwasiw further explained what data is looked at.

“And so we look at the population that we’re providing services to, we look at all the data related to the demographics, the information we have on their health status, social determinant of health status, et cetera. And then we also translate that into what services are currently available, and what services would best serve the needs of the population going forward. And we look at future service delivery, future service delivery models for delivery of healthcare in the future, because how we do things today, won’t necessarily be the best evidence and the best way to deliver services in the future.”

Community health care planning engagement sessions for Cypress County, and Medicine Hat will take place in Medicine Hat on Wednesday, Nov. 30, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., and for Newell county, Brooks and, Bassano, sessions will take place in Brooks on Thursday, Dec. 1, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

All sessions are available through Zoom, but for information regarding other sessions, and more visit together4health.albertahealthservices.ca.

The South Zone healthcare plan is expected to be done by Fall 2023, but final reviews and approval will take place before it is published.