Latest news with #AlbertaHealthServices
CTV News
11 hours ago
- General
- CTV News
Airdrie health centre closed this week for upgrades
The Airdrie Urgent Care Centre will be closed June 3 at 8 p.m. until June 4 at 7 a.m. so crews can complete an electrical system upgrade at the facility. (File) The health care centre that provides urgent care to thousands of residents in Airdrie and area will be closed for 11 hours this week, Alberta Health Services (AHS) said. AHS said the Urgent Care Centre (UCC) will be temporarily closed from 8 p.m. on June 3 to 7 a.m. on June 4 in order to complete some electrical upgrades at the facility. Therefore, anyone with medical emergencies will need to go to another emergency department, such as the Peter Lougheed Centre in Calgary (29 kilometres away) or the Didsbury hospital (45 kilometres away). Nurses will be at the building to redirect patients at the UCC should they arrive seeking help. 'As always, residents are asked to call 911 if they have a medical emergency,' AHS said. 'EMS will remain available to the community and will work to ensure residents continue to have access to the emergency services they need.' Residents are also reminded that HealthLink is available at 811 for all non-emergency health-related questions. Callers can use that hotline to speak to a registered nurse or book an appointment with a family doctor for a follow-up.
CBC
19 hours ago
- General
- CBC
From outbreaks to mass casualty events, Alberta's health system preps for G7 summit
Social Sharing Alberta's health system is being prepared for a variety of scenarios, including disease outbreaks and mass casualty incidents, ahead of the G7 leaders' summit in Kananaskis later this month. According to Alberta Health Services (AHS), which has been planning for the event since last year, 150 health personnel will be deployed to various sites in Calgary and the Bow Corridor to support the high profile event. World leaders will gather in Kananaskis from June 15 to 17 and thousands of delegates, journalists and others are expected to descend upon the Calgary region. "AHS has robust emergency response plans in place for all hospital sites for scenarios such as mass casualty incidents, food-borne illness, protests, wildfires or extreme weather events," an AHS spokesperson said in an email. "These plans include co-ordinating with the provincial government, Health Canada, local law enforcement and other partners as appropriate." "It's a very large operation," said Dr. James Talbot, a former chief medical officer of health for Alberta, who is not involved in planning this event but understands the logistics of public health based on his years in the top job. In addition to security planning for an event of of this scale, a lot of work goes on behind the scenes to prevent illness and injury and ensure the health system can respond quickly and appropriately if anything happens, said Talbot. "Getting all your ducks in a row, so that hopefully you don't have to use any of it — but if you do, that it goes seamlessly — is really a labour-intensive and time-intensive operation," said Talbot, whose tenure in the top job ended in 2015. He is now an adjunct professor at the University of Alberta's school of public health. Ensuring the health and safety of heads of state is a complicated process involving local, provincial, federal and international governments and agencies, according to Talbot. He expects ambulances, helicopters, hospitals and ICUs will likely be prepared and on standby. Doctors, nurses and other staff will be needed to work in emergency rooms, ICUs, labs and diagnostic testing. Equipment such as masks are likely being stockpiled along with a variety of drugs and blood supplies, he added. Some world leaders may bring along their own health and security personnel, Talbot said, and that can require a high degree of co-ordination. "For instance, the American president often travels with their own ICU staff, a portable operating room, their own diagnostic capacity and obviously might decide that they would prefer to have a president or member of the staff stabilized and then sent directly, as quickly as possible, to an American institution," said Talbot. "But that will not be true of all of the nations that participate." In the months leading up events such as this, many steps are taken to prevent health problems such as outbreaks of infectious diseases or food-borne illnesses, according to Talbot. That would include repeated water quality testing at the venues, ensuring catering services are hygienic and safe and staff are healthy, as well as inspections of mechanical HVAC systems to ensure they can handle air quality issues such as wildfire smoke, he said. According to AHS, the RCMP handles the summit's overall risk assessments, and the federal government is responsible for ensuring all arrangements for the event and all costs associated with protecting the health of heads of state. A federal government spokesperson said Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) are working with all levels of government along with private sector partners on health and safety efforts. "Health Canada and PHAC are taking precautionary steps to be ready, if called upon by the Province of Alberta, to help respond to a range of incidents, including an infectious disease outbreak, weather related emergencies, or an event causing mass casualties at the summit site or elsewhere," the spokesperson said in an email. "Federal support available includes a highly trained team of medical professionals who would be the first medical responders on the scene in the event of any medical incident." A stockpile of personal protective equipment, biomedical equipment and pharmaceuticals is available to provinces if they run out or their supplies are not immediately available, the department said. Similar preparations were made for previous large events, including the G7 leaders' summit in Charlevoix, Que., in 2018. "It's really good to be prepared. It's really good to be thinking about this. But I would say everyone on the front lines is just hopeful nothing happens," said Dr. Paul Parks, past-president of the Alberta Medical Association. Parks, who is also an emergency room doctor in Medicine Hat, said hospitals are already under strain. "We don't have a lot of give in the system and it will have major impacts if we had to absorb something significant."
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
From outbreaks to mass casualty events, Alberta's health system preps for G7 summit
Alberta's health system is being prepared for a variety of scenarios, including disease outbreaks and mass casualty incidents, ahead of the G7 leaders' summit in Kananaskis later this month. According to Alberta Health Services (AHS), which has been planning for the event since last year, 150 health personnel will be deployed to various sites in Calgary and the Bow Corridor to support the high profile event. World leaders will gather in Kananaskis from June 15 to 17 and thousands of delegates, journalists and others are expected to descend upon the Calgary region. "AHS has robust emergency response plans in place for all hospital sites for scenarios such as mass casualty incidents, food-borne illness, protests, wildfires or extreme weather events," an AHS spokesperson said in an email. "These plans include co-ordinating with the provincial government, Health Canada, local law enforcement and other partners as appropriate." "It's a very large operation," said Dr. James Talbot, a former chief medical officer of health for Alberta, who is not involved in planning this event but understands the logistics of public health based on his years in the top job. In addition to security planning for an event of of this scale, a lot of work goes on behind the scenes to prevent illness and injury and ensure the health system can respond quickly and appropriately if anything happens, said Talbot. "Getting all your ducks in a row, so that hopefully you don't have to use any of it — but if you do, that it goes seamlessly — is really a labour-intensive and time-intensive operation," said Talbot, whose tenure in the top job ended in 2015. He is now an adjunct professor at the University of Alberta's school of public health. Ensuring the health and safety of heads of state is a complicated process involving local, provincial, federal and international governments and agencies, according to Talbot. He expects ambulances, helicopters, hospitals and ICUs will likely be prepared and on standby. Doctors, nurses and other staff will be needed to work in emergency rooms, ICUs, labs and diagnostic testing. Equipment such as masks are likely being stockpiled along with a variety of drugs and blood supplies, he added. Some world leaders may bring along their own health and security personnel, Talbot said, and that can require a high degree of co-ordination. "For instance, the American president often travels with their own ICU staff, a portable operating room, their own diagnostic capacity and obviously might decide that they would prefer to have a president or member of the staff stabilized and then sent directly, as quickly as possible, to an American institution," said Talbot. "But that will not be true of all of the nations that participate." In the months leading up events such as this, many steps are taken to prevent health problems such as outbreaks of infectious diseases or food-borne illnesses, according to Talbot. That would include repeated water quality testing at the venues, ensuring catering services are hygienic and safe and staff are healthy, as well as inspections of mechanical HVAC systems to ensure they can handle air quality issues such as wildfire smoke, he said. According to AHS, the RCMP handles the summit's overall risk assessments, and the federal government is responsible for ensuring all arrangements for the event and all costs associated with protecting the health of heads of state. A federal government spokesperson said Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) are working with all levels of government along with private sector partners on health and safety efforts. "Health Canada and PHAC are taking precautionary steps to be ready, if called upon by the Province of Alberta, to help respond to a range of incidents, including an infectious disease outbreak, weather related emergencies, or an event causing mass casualties at the summit site or elsewhere," the spokesperson said in an email. "Federal support available includes a highly trained team of medical professionals who would be the first medical responders on the scene in the event of any medical incident." A stockpile of personal protective equipment, biomedical equipment and pharmaceuticals is available to provinces if they run out or their supplies are not immediately available, the department said. Similar preparations were made for previous large events, including the G7 leaders' summit in Charlevoix, Que., in 2018. "It's really good to be prepared. It's really good to be thinking about this. But I would say everyone on the front lines is just hopeful nothing happens," said Dr. Paul Parks, past-president of the Alberta Medical Association. Parks, who is also an emergency room doctor in Medicine Hat, said hospitals are already under strain. "We don't have a lot of give in the system and it will have major impacts if we had to absorb something significant." Meanwhile, AHS said the health system routinely supports large events and "the summit is not expected to have any effect on Albertans' ability to access health services."
CTV News
2 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
‘I'm letting the process play out': Alberta premier defends extending deadline for third-party report into AHS procurement process
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announces proposed changes to several pieces of democratic process legislation, in Edmonton on Tuesday April 29, 2025. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson) Alberta Premier Danielle Smith defended the extension of delivery of a judge's third-party investigation into a controversy surrounding Alberta Health Services procurement processes. Manitoba provincial court judge Raymond Wyant was originally expected to submit an interim report to the province on Friday, followed by a full report next month. Deputy Minister of jobs Chris McPherson said Wyant needed more time due to the volume of documents. He is now expected to deliver his interim report in September, with the final report coming in mid-October. The allegations stem from a wrongful dismissal lawsuit filed by Athana Mentzelopoulos, the former head of Alberta Health Services, who claims individuals in high government places interfered in overpriced health deals for private companies while she was on the job. The allegations have not been tested in court. Saturday morning, on her radio show Your Province, Your Premier, Smith defended the extension. 'There's lots of ways to do a public enquiry,' Smith said. 'We hired a judge to get all the information and to give us a report so that is what we're doing,' she added. 'The judge has said he got thousands of pages of documents and he needs to interview several people in relation to what he's learned. 'And he just asked for more time of the deputy minister who's responsible for this,' she said, 'so we've always said if he needed more time or more funding, that we'd accommodate that. 'So I think that's a demonstration that we're going to make sure the judge gets whatever they need to be able to give us a good report. 'I think they're planning now to have the report published online on Oct. 15, so we'll know in the fall.' Calls for Inquiry Smith has been criticized for not calling for an independent inquiry into the procurement controversy, but she said the government's approach is part of letting the process play out. 'If the judge comes back and says there's some criminal behaviour that took place, that someone in AHS acted in a criminal way to direct contracts to somebody inappropriately, that would probably be an indication (of the need to call an independent inquiry),' she said. 'But that is not what's happened,' she added. 'What we're actually hearing so far is that the processes were followed internally,' she said, continuing. 'In fact, two of the reports that the former CEO (Mentzelopoulos) commissioned said that there was no reason for them not to extend the contract with ASG and that's why it was extended. 'I would say that I'm going to keep an open mind,' she said. 'Part of the reason why we're going through (the judge's investigation) is there's been a lot of slander, been a lot of defamation, a lot of rumours and gossip and false allegations and that the point is, you have to be able to make sure somebody is able to look at the full evidence and say this is true, this is not – and this is what you should do. 'So I'm letting the process play out.' On Friday, Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi called out the government for not producing the report when it said it would. 'For months, we've been calling for an independent, public inquiry into the CorruptCare scandal,' said Nenshi, in a media release. 'Every step of the way, the minister dismissed those calls and claimed we didn't need one because he'd release Justice Wyant's findings to the public. 'Well, he's out of excuses,' Nenshi added. 'Where's the report?' With files from The Canadian Press
CTV News
3 days ago
- General
- CTV News
Bow Island ER closed over weekend due to lack of clinical coverage
The Bow Island ER is temporarily closed over the weekend due to a lack of clinical coverage. The Bow Island Health Centre emergency department is temporarily closed over the weekend due to a lack of clinical coverage. The ER will resume normal hours on Monday morning. For the time being, nursing staff will remain on site to provide care for remaining patients and long-term care residents. Alberta Health Services said that anyone needing emergency care should call 911 or go to Taber or Medicine Hat For non-urgent health questions call 811.
