The soon-to-be Cochrane health foundation – if it indeed comes to be called that – has been forging ahead with some promising developments this past week.
As of Nov. 14, the core group (largely spearheaded up to this point by the Cochrane EMS Citizen Action Group) had met with Alberta Health Services representatives and received their commitment to participate on a new board of directors; drafted a set of bylaws to govern their activities going forward; and recruited 18 members who are willing to sit on the board. About one-third of them have medical backgrounds.
The group will decide soon on what they want to be called, and will also determine how big they want the board to be.
Organizer Brian Winter was particularly encouraged to also receive support Nov. 14 from Harish Consul, President and CEO of the Ocgrow Group of Companies – the developers of the new Greystone village project that will be adjacent to Spray Lake Sawmills.
Winter said Consul, who is bullish on Cochrane’s future, is one of the 18 who put their name forward to sit on the board.
“I’ve agreed as I always believed in leading positive change to help champion great causes for the community,” Consul said, noting also that Cochrane is currently the fastest growing community in Alberta.
“Improving the quality of Cochrane health care, including providing 24/7 urgent care services, shall benefit the entire community.”
Dr. Dennis Fundytus, who may be familiar to many Cochranites after his 40 years running a family practice, will also sit on the new board.
Fundytus, who is now retired, stressed the ultimate goal is to meet the community’s health-care needs in many different ways, so there should not be any single issue that drives the group forward.
He was also encouraged by Consul’s participation, whether he becomes a board member or not.
“He’s offered to support us in any way he can – whether that’s on the board or politically, we don’t know yet,” Fundytus said.
“He’s a very upbeat individual, and he’s telling us that Cochrane is really going to take off.”
Fundytus said while the new organization is getting off the ground, there is a need for the business community to step up now.
He is familiar with the Bates family’s tragedy in Airdrie and added Cochrane can move ahead with improving health care before misfortune strikes.
Michelle Bates, a co-founding member of the Airdrie Health Foundation, was the guest speaker at a meeting in Cochrane Oct. 18 at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church.
The Airdrie Health Foundation was established after Bates’s five-year-old son Lane became suddenly ill during the night in 2009. Airdrie had no 24-hour emergency medical care at the time, and the family made the fateful decision to wait until morning before taking Lane to urgent care. But he passed before they could get him in to see his doctor.
A year after Lane's passing, the Bates family was again in need of medical care in the middle of the night for one of their daughters. This time, they needed to travel at night to Didsbury Hospital during a massive snow storm.
The two instances led Bates to become an impassioned advocate for improved health-care services in the community. She co-founded the Airdrie Health Foundation to prevent other families from experiencing similar tragedies. Beginning as a grassroots organization in 2010, the foundation was established as a registered charity in 2013.
After years of work and lobbying the provincial government, the Airdrie Health Foundation realized their goal: establishing 24-hour urgent care services for Airdrie in 2017.
Fundytus said the Bates’ story has been inspirational to the Cochrane group.
“That’s the reason some of us are getting involved - we certainly don’t want that to happen here. They (Airdrie) beat their heads against the wall for…many years, and finally someone had to die,” Fundytus said.
“It’s too sad, but that’s the reality of what happened.”
