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Barb Toker: A touch of grey
Barb Toker
for Smoky River Express
There is no question the vital service that STARS air ambulance provides to Albertans. That we have access to a rapid response team ready to provide quality emergency care across the expanse of the MD of Smoky is a tremendous selling point for our region. Such a service is deserving of support.
However, STARS’ role must continue to be viewed as a support to local health care service and must never be allowed to become an excuse for reducing the levels of that local service. In making its decisions to fund STARS, municipalities must bear in mind that the ability to “package” patients for delivery to larger, better equipped health care facilities may be all the excuse Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky and Alberta Health Service’s boss Stephen Duckett need to reduce or even eliminate services at rural hospitals like the one in McLennan.
If we can, as STARS Grande Prairie GM Andy Stewart says, “package” a critical care patient for delivery to Grande Prairie or Edmonton, why can’t we “package” an acute care patient in the same way? Such a scenario doesn’t make sense for a region with a large population base, but then, we don’t really have that anymore, do we?
It must also be remembered that as STARS is a Calgary-based business, and in order to survive in this day and age, a business must expand its service offerings. In the early ‘90s, operators of fixed-wing air ambulance services feared their demise as plans for central dispatch of air ambulance service began to be heard. That threat seems even more valid as the provincial government consolidates public services. Bigger appears to be better in the eyes of government and much easier to administer.
“Albertans will never support superboards.”
Those were the words of then-Dunvegan Constituency MLA, Glenn Clegg. It was the reason that he voted Ralph Klein over Nancy Betkowski for leader of the provincial Tories. Clegg gave his assurances that Klein would never support the superboard concepts, but it was during the reign of King Ralph that erosion of local authority began in earnest.
Gone are local health boards. Gone are regional health boards. In their place a massive bureaucracy that even the current Minister has admitted is out of touch with the public it is to serve.
Given the current economic state and the political ideology, it would be foolish to discount fears of regional health care provision. As rural populations dwindle, the weight of the political hammer we once wielded has also decreased. Looking at the number of municipalities now signed up for STARS indicates not only funding, but, in the eyes of the dome dwellers in Edmonton, political support as well.
Again, as a support to local health care provision, STARS is a valuable tool to be used toward ensuring the health of those who remain in the rural areas of the Peace Country. It would have been nice if our own local health authorities – when we had them - had been given the same level of support to develop our own rapid response teams so as to ensure the private and public support now flowing to STARS stays in the region.
I wish STARS every success in providing patient care.
My wish for the hospitals in our region is that they have even greater success acquiring the skilled hands, necessary equipment and political commitment they need so STARS can spend more time on the ground than in the sky.
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