SUNDRE — A committee’s mission to establish a rural health care campus in the community -- including a new hospital -- to train tomorrow’s health-care professionals today, seems to potentially be taking shape.
“For the last few years, we’ve been working toward what we’re calling the Sundre Health Care Campus,” Gerald Ingeveld, chair of the Sundre Hospital Futures Committee, said during a recent interview.
The driving force behind this initiative stems from the fact that rural health care provision is a largely different world from delivering health care in a city, said Ingeveld.
“A nurse, for example, has to be trained in every part of hospital-based medicine,” he said.
As opposed to being assigned a specialized role in a specific ward in a city hospital, rural medical professionals must be trained and prepared to, for example, tend to residents at the Sundre Seniors Supportive Living lodge, palliative care patients at the Myron Thompson Health Centre, or perhaps even rush over to help in the emergency department, he said.
“There’s a lot to learn. So, when a nurse comes to Sundre — whether they’re a recent graduate or if they’ve been working in the city — it takes a long time to train them up to the point where they actually can work on their own and not have to be with a more senior nurse.”
That process might take as long as one year to ensure new recruits are up to speed on all of the aspects involved in running a rural hospital. So, the committee saw an opportunity to fill a need by providing training right at home, he said.
“We can be a place that can help to train people.”
In certain regards, he said that effort is already well underway.
Ingeveld cited as an example the fully credited health-care aide program being delivered in town through a cooperative effort among the municipality, Greenwood Neighbourhood Place, as well as Campus Alberta Central and Red Deer College. Keeping his fingers crossed that the program won’t be impacted by the pandemic, he said it looks to be going ahead as planned starting in January.
Further, he said the committee is looking into working toward bringing a licensed practical nurse program in Sundre, and added doctors are planning to host an ultrasound training program in the new year as well.
“We’re also working in cooperation with the (Sundre) Fire Department and the Town of Sundre to set up what’s called an e-sim lab.”
Elaborating, he said if successful, that effort will result in the fire hall becoming home to an electronic simulation lab.
The committee also remains committed to offering scholarships in the hopes of fostering opportunities to grow and develop local talent with the objective of enticing students who grew up in the community to choose their hometown as a rural practice, he said.
“And of course the flagship to all of that, would be a brand new Sundre hospital,” he said.
“It’s a huge plan.”
Little bits and pieces are slowly but surely being put into place, including Mountain View County Coun. Angela Aalbers recently leading the county in a conversation with Prasad Panda, minister of Infrastructure, he said.
“Our hospital has been recognized by Central Zone AHS (Alberta Health Services) as being a top priority for replacement — just a matter of dollars.”
The committee, he added, also made a submission to the minister.
“He has agreed to put us onto at least the 20-year plan. Now, it’s just a matter of backing that up so that it gets onto a shorter (time) span.”
That effort will also involve investigating the possibility of securing federal funding that’s available for this type of infrastructure. Particularly, he said, for projects that involve multiple organizations and stakeholders working in collaboration, such as developing a hospital that for example includes a clinic, ambulance bays and perhaps even a nearby tri-services building.
“We’re working toward that as well. Our vision is that Sundre would become the place to learn about rural medicine — whether you’re a doctor, a nurse, a health-care aide, a physiotherapist, a dentist, a masseuse, a chiropractor — that you would be able to learn about the intricacies of rural health care, right here in Sundre.”
But despite the progress made to date, the pandemic has created challenges.
“It’s become very difficult for us,” he said, adding the committee also operates the foundation that raises funds for equipment at the hospital.
Currently in the middle of a capital campaign, he said the committee was forced to cancel its fifth annual Sundre Hospital Legacy Gala, which had until last November sold out every time.
“Donations really have kind of have dried up,” he said, inviting anyone who is so inclined to visit www.SundreHospitalFutures.com.
While plans have not been officially determined, the committee is considering hosting a virtual silent auction, he said.
