Banding together to protect healthcare

It is apparent Airdrie residents need to stand up to protect what little health-care services we have.

We are proud of the local doctors, nurses, residents, and politicians who stood up against the Alberta Health Services’ (AHS) recent decision to lay off nurse practitioners at Airdrie and Cochrane’s urgent care facilities.

Their objections to the layoffs caused AHS to rescind the decision, which in our minds is the only decision they could have made.

Laying off nurse practitioners, who do most of the work of doctors for a fraction of the cost, would have been the stupidest decision AHS has made since deciding to take over ambulance service in all communities and disbanding Airdrie’s incredibly efficient integrated emergency services in 2010.

Taking health services away from a community that is already desperately lacking is irresponsible and could cost lives. This oversight (to put it nicely) is not acceptable. Airdrie is a community of more than 45,000 people. We do not have 24-hour emergency services, we do not have a hospital, we have only eight “hospital” beds and an urgent care facility that closes at 10 p.m.

Our wait times for ambulances have increased since AHS took over the service three years ago.

We cannot sufficiently provide health care to our residents now and AHS thinks it is acceptable to further cut our services to save a couple of dollars in a budget that hasn’t even been tabled yet. It’s enough to make you sick.