Airdrie urgent care closures due to physician shortage

Alberta’s doctor shortage is affecting yet another facility in the province, this time in Airdrie.

In a statement, Alberta Health Services (AHS) says hours are being cut at the Airdrie Urgent Care Centre in what’s being described as a temporary measure taken as a last resort.

AHS says the center will be closed overnight on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. for the next two months.

It notes new patients will not be admitted after 8 p.m.

The health authority says those needing help can go to another hospital and those with lesser health concerns can opt for a walk-in appointment at a local medical clinic first thing on Monday morning.

Patients are encouraged to use the health link at 811 which is available 24/7, for non-emergency, health-related questions.

But if they need emergency help, they are advised to call 911.

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AHS says nursing staff will remain on duty overnight just in case of walk-ins not familiar with the hours to assess and refer any walk-up patients to other hospitals.

Anyone needing care will be referred to another site in Calgary or Didsbury.

The urgent care center will resume full-time operations as of 7 a.m. on Mondays.

This is just the latest of many closures across the province due to a lack of physicians and the pressure on nursing staff.

“We’re concerned about all of these hospital closures. If you go look at the map of the summer closures across Alberta and a lot of the more rural communities we’re seeing ER Urgent Care Centre closures, we’re seeing all sorts of closures due to short staffing,” said Chris Gallaway Executive Director of Friends of Medicare.

“It’s very concerning when people need emergency care and can’t receive it whether it’s EMS, through emergency rooms or EMS centres, so we’re pretty concerned. We’ve been calling for since Christmas really for a staffing plan in healthcare in Alberta that short staffing in a huge issue to address,” said Gallaway.

“We know that a lot of what’s happening is staffing issues and a lot of healthcare workers are again testing positive for COVID we saw the test positivity rate up above 20 percent,” said Gallaway 

“So it’s impacting healthcare workers to show up for shifts and they are having to stay home we really need to take the pandemic seriously, to take staffing seriously and actually listen to some of those solutions to take the pressure of the system that workes and other groups have been calling for months,” said Gallaway.

As for the measures being taken place which has led to this last resort decision Gallaway said there are multiple reasons including the biggest one being healthcare worker burnout.

“They’re exhausted, they’re understaffed and now people are experiencing another wave of COVID and people are unable to come to work – it all compounds,” said Gallaway.

Gallaway says a simple solution around emergency care is to no longer have paramedics have casual contracts that rotate every 90 days but to hire them into full-time roles with benefits, with sick days so that they can have some stability in the system.

“We need a plan to retain and recruit staff,” said Gallaway.

–With files from Jillian Code