COCHRANE— Many Cochranites remain stunned by the recent announcement the Calgary Foothills Primary Care Network will be closing the Cochrane Primary Care Centre before January 2022.
With no answers coming from the provincial government, many are questioning the future of health care in the community and face an uncertain future with regards to finding a family physician in Cochrane.
At the regular council meeting Monday (May 10) Mayor Jeff Genung said he has received “countless” calls and emails regarding the closure of the Cochrane Primary Care Centre, and indicated that he had held a meeting with MLA Peter Guthrie to discuss the issue.
“Access to doctors and medical care is something we require to be a complete community,” Genung said, echoing words spoken by Councillor Tara McFadden. “It’s part of our purview as a complete community to offer access to doctors.”
Genung went on to say access to quality medical care is a primary factor for maintaining growth, as it is something that newcomers might consider when looking to move into the community.
“One of the first questions, and I’m guessing here, a resident would do when they’re trying to move to our community are locating schools and medicine,” he said. “We should be doing what we can as a community to provide some of that— Whatever we can do.”
McFadden said she hopes to see the issue brought before council again in the future, despite the issue being a provincial matter.
“It’s been a lot of years since we actually had a doctor shortage in Cochrane and I don’t want to be looking at that again. I understand that it’s officially a provincial issue, but the pain of that is felt locally,” McFadden said, urging council to add the issue a future meeting. “I know in other municipalities the municipal council has stepped up and I think we need to show support for our local doctors and our citizens that need care.”
Councillor Susan Flowers agreed, adding she feels the issue deserves Town Council’s attention.
“I too think it would be good to have a conversation and come up with a Cochrane solution even though it’s not in our area. We’ve spent years trying to attract doctors here and it’s a sad state. I look forward to more information and where we can have an impact,” she said.
Councillor Patrick Wilson also suggested that council form an official opinion which may help the Town in its efforts to advocate
“Do we have an advocacy approach? Do we feel a certain way as a council toward what’s happening provincially with our health regulations right now? If advocacy is the only avenue available to us, and I think it very well may be, it might be something worth talking about as a council, how we feel about that.”
Cochrane resident Ann Rowland said she is concerned about the future of health care in Cochrane.
Rowland said she had not heard about the closure until she received a letter from her doctor in the mail.
“It was almost like an ‘oh no’ feeling because we know that doctors throughout the province are getting scarcer and scarcer, and it affects so many people,” she said. “Being a senior citizen, and my husband is a senior citizen, you never know when you’re going to need that help. It’s a devastating feeling, especially when you know in the back of your mind it’s going to be hard to find a new doctor.”
In the weeks after receiving the notice of the closure, Rowland said, she phoned many other clinics in Cochrane and in northwest Calgary, many of whom did not even return her call.
When she finally found a doctor in Calgary who was willing to do a meet and greet with her, she would have to wait until the end of July to see them.
“Even after that you don’t know if you’re going to have a doctor or not,” she said.
Rowland’s doctor was Jennifer Corrales, a physician who had the letter she sent to her patients posted online.
In the letter, Corrales said she was unable to provide the level of care she wanted to give while simultaneously dealing with the “destabilization” of the industry caused by the UCP’s policies.
“My decision to leave this practice has not been easy. I am Alberta born, raised and trained, and did not imagine leaving before the election two years ago. However, almost solely due to the policies, hostilities and destabilization of primary care by the UCP, I have decided to explore opportunities in other provinces and abroad. When I am away, I will be able to care for patients and perform the job I love without simultaneously fighting the government or watching the destruction of front-line patient care,” Corrales wrote. “It has been an absolute pleasure to serve you and to have had the privilege to be part of this community over the past nine years.”
Rowland said she is concerned about the situation in Alberta, and is worried the issue has now reached a point where the province is losing physicians who will be hard to replace.
Despite her worries, Rowland said, she understands her doctor’s frustration and her decision to leave the province.
“While you can be sad or upset or frustrated by her decision, it’s still her decision and you have to respect her career path as well,” Rowland said.
She said she feels for the physicians in the province, and knows that they are not leaving without good reason.
“It’s disruptive for the doctors too. They all have empathy for their clients, it’s not that they don’t care, they just can’t sustain their business,” she said. “They get into that profession not because it’s easy, they do it because they care. Now they’re being forced to change their ability to care for everybody.”
Given the situation between the UCP and the province’s doctors seems to be deteriorating, Rowland wonders how long it can continue before the situation is unable to be rectified.
“I don’t know how we can correct this at this point in time, it’s gone too far,” she said. “This whole issue of the government and the doctors should have been addressed long ago. It’s gone so far now, with doctors pulling out, trying to entice doctors to come back to some of the smaller communities is going to be hard. What kind of incentive can we offer them?”
Five years ago, when she first moved to the community, Rowland said, it was already difficult to find a family doctor in Cochrane. Rowland’s niece was a patient of Corrales before she was. When her niece moved out of the community, Rowland said she called Corrales and asked if she could replace her as a patient.
“This didn’t just pop out of nowhere, it’s been coming for a long time, and of course the growth here is affecting the situation,” Rowland said.
Another issue Rowland said concerns her is the possibility of people using the Cochrane Urgent Care Centre as a drop-in medical service.
“I think you’re going to find people showing up there, whether it’s urgent or not. Sometimes they have no alternative, or won’t have an alternative,” she said. “People that need urgent care, need it now, but if it’s going to be treated as a drop-in place instead of more urgent situations it’s definitely going to impact the staff there.”
Rowland said if there are not more opportunities for doctors in Cochrane, the future of health care in the community looks “bleak.”
“It makes me wonder if in the interim, and the interim could be a couple of years, have some type of mobile clinics that can see families, children, adults. But then again, you’re going to have huge lineups for things like that if you don’t have a family doctor,” Rowland said.
Cochranite Jim Messner said the situation brewing between Alberta’s government and its doctors should be looked at by the entire province as a warning sign of things to come.
“If they’re not making enough money because of whatever situation is there right now with the Alberta government, I think all of Alberta needs to look at this, not just Cochrane,” he said. “Which doctor's office is going to be next? It’s already hard to get a doctor.”
Given the reasons listed in the notice of closure, namely, that COVID-19 has caused a lot of people to forego treatment, Messner said, he is worried about other clinics in the province as well.
Messner said he is concerned about the future of health care, and worried about the prospect of attracting doctors to the community, and keeping them here.
“How do we get doctors to come to Cochrane? How do we attract them and how do we keep them here?” Messner said. “Cochrane is growing so fast, it makes one wonder why is this happening when Cochrane is such a great community to live in.”
