A group of doctors at Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre (RDRHC) sent a letter to Alberta Health Minister Jason Copping and the Alberta Health Services (AHS), saying the surgery program “continues to be on the brink of collapse.” .“If urgent action is not taken to rectify the shortage that we are facing, we will be unable to continue caring for the nearly 500,000 Central Alberta residents who depend on our centre for surgical care,” said the doctors in a letter. .“The repercussions of such a collapse would be catastrophic for both the health system and for patient care, and we need immediate measures to be taken to prevent this.” .Some of the doctors who signed the letter were RDRHC chief of general surgery Dr. Glen Vajcner, chief of orthopaedic surgery Dr. Krishna Maragh, and chief of obstetrics and gynecology Dr. Christopher Cham. .The letter said over the past two years, RDRHC experienced significant attrition of operating room anesthesiologists and nurses. It said loss of the staff members has led to reduced availability of resources and harmed the surgery program. .The letter went on to say the reduction in staff made the RDRHC unable to run elective surgeries at full capacity during weekdays. It added there's a severe backlog of elective surgery wait lists. .The letter said there's an inability to run an adequate number of emergency surgeries during the daytime and after hours. Emergency cases are piling up, which the letter said is “dangerous for patient care.” .These doctors said there are worsening outcomes for patients, compounded by a lack of supports. This causes a massive strain on beds, contributing to a backlog in the emergency room. .The letter includes an action plan to improve surgical services at RDRHC. .It requests emergency funding to encourage recruitment of anesthesiologists at the hospital. It said there should be competitive signing bonuses to recruit permanent anesthesiology staff. .The letter asks Copping and AHS to do a comprehensive review of stipends and overhead relief to encourage anesthesiologist and surgeon retention. It said there should be immediate equalization to match those offered to colleagues in other zones. .The doctors said there have to be increases to the number of anesthesia and nurse training positions. They said anaesthesiology residency training spots in Alberta and nurse clinicals, particularly at Red Deer College, have to be expanded. .Appropriate supports for surgeons, said the letter, have to be hired. It said clinical assistants are needed to to support specialists managing high work volumes. .The doctors concluded by saying health determinations “should not be contingent on the geographic location of an individual.” .“If nothing is done, Central Albertans will experience worse health outcomes compared to other Albertans due to the lack of health resources in this region,” they said. .AHS communications director Kerry Williamson said at this time, there are no planned surgical diversions scheduled for RDRHC, and he is hopeful they will not be necessary. ."AHS is working on multiple fronts to support the surgical program, as well as anesthesiology, at RDRHC to help address staffing challenges, including vacancies and gaps in the on-call schedule," said Williamson. ."Job offers have been extended to two new anesthesiologists for RDRHC in the last week, and another five recruits are in various stages of assessments and credentialing.".He said two more positions are about to be posted. Site leadership continues to meet with anesthesiology, surgical specialty leads, and department heads to review recruitment efforts, surgical and referral wait lists, and operating room usage. .The Alberta government announced in February $1.8 billion to increase healthcare capacity at the RDRHC. .READ MORE: UCP gives Red Deer hospital a steep upgrade.“The $1.8 billion hospital expansion is the largest in Alberta’s history and the largest taxpayer investment in the history of central Alberta,” it said. .Initial investment will start with $193 million over the next three years for 200 in-patient beds, bumping capacity up 54%, from 370 beds to 570 beds.
