Staff shortages keep operating rooms at High Prairie hospital closed for years
High Prairie residents forced to travel hours for emergency surgeries and to give birth
When the $228-million regional hospital in High Prairie, Alta., opened in 2017, the provincial government hailed it as a state-of-the-art facility that would improve the lives of patients in the community.
But six years later, the operating rooms are empty.
According to the Alberta government, the High Prairie Health Complex surgical program has been on pause since 2020.
That leaves the northwest Alberta region of 15,000 people — including several First Nations and Métis Settlements — with a minimum 115-kilometre journey for emergency surgery or to deliver a baby in hospital.
The gap in health care around High Prairie, about 300 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, is a symptom of a concern echoed across Alberta. Even when the infrastructure is available, rural hospitals frequently lack the necessary staff to provide routine medical services.
Dr. Robert Laughlin, a retired physician in High Prairie, said he's seen a decline in locally available medical services since he moved to the community from Scotland 51 years ago.
"It has a tremendous impact," he said. "[It's] band-aid medicine rather than comprehensive medicine."
The respected physician, who has a High Prairie street named after him, recently had to step away from his practice after personally experiencing the perils of travelling for emergency medical care.
Last year, his appendix burst during the 200-kilometre journey to the hospital in Grande Prairie for surgery.
Surgeons were able to remove his appendix, but the rupture complicated his recovery.
"It did incapacitate me quite a bit and prevented my return to work," he said.
Since closing his clinic, he said he's frustrated AHS hasn't done more to recruit new physicians and help them settle in his community.
WATCH | Operating rooms in High Prairie, Alta., closed due to staffing shortage:
New hospital offered 'hope'
Many people who live around High Prairie can remember the excitement when the new hospital opened in 2017.
"There was a promise of more services for the region," said Greg Gauchier, the chairman of the Peavine Métis Settlement. The community is one of three Métis Settlements in the High Prairie area.
"The old facility was pretty aged and there was hope that a new facility would attract more nurses and doctors to the area," he said.
But while Gauchier has seen some improvement in services, he said people in his community still have to travel long distances — sometimes driving more than four hours to Edmonton — to visit a specialist, receive cancer treatments or deliver a baby.
The Health Complex is the newest hospital built in rural Alberta.
In March, former health minister Jason Copping announced the province would dedicate $105 million over three years to a Rural Health Facilities Revitalization Program.
The province also promised record-high health-care spending of $24.5 billion in the 2023 budget, including measures to hire more staff.
In a statement to CBC, an Alberta Health spokesperson said, "AHS is experiencing recruitment challenges across the province, particularly in areas outside of main urban centres."
No obstetrics program
In February 2019, the Health Complex launched its new obstetrics program for the first time, but it was halted in 2020 due to a shortage of OR nurses.
That period was the only time when the Health Complex's surgical facilities were operating. Surgeons could provide C-sections and support high-risk deliveries, and over that time, 70 babies were born in the hospital.
After the hospital operating rooms closed, far fewer babies were delivered there.
According to AHS, a total of just eight babies were born at the Health Complex from April 2021 to January 2023.
In 2019, High Prairie mom Amber McLeod went to the Health Complex in labour with her third child. The hospital is just a five-minute drive from her home.
That was before the obstetrics program started, but when she arrived already seven centimetres dilated, she said hospital staff couldn't risk sending her two hours away to deliver at the hospital in Grande Prairie.
Multiple staff came to observe the delivery, including nurses and a medical resident, McLeod said.
"I felt like a celebrity," she said.
"I think they just wanted [them] to have that experience because they may not have that experience again — or it may be a while before they do."
When McLeod had her fourth child this past May, she planned for a home birth with a midwife from Grande Prairie, the nearest community with midwives.
But in the end, she said her labour was just two hours long, and neither the midwife nor local paramedics made it in time for the birth. Her husband and her nine-year old daughter successfully helped her through the delivery.
High Prairie Mayor Brian Panasiuk said the options for giving birth locally have changed drastically over his time in the community.
Laughlin delivered Panasiuk's own daughter in town decades ago, but parents today have to travel an hour or two to have a baby.
"That's just a long way to go," he said.
He remembered when the old hospital could deliver as many as 340 babies in a year, and he'd like to see that available for parents again.
Search for solutions
Panasiuk said the town of High Prairie has partnered with the surrounding Big Lakes County on an attraction and retention committee to help physicians and nurses get to know the area if they're interested in working there.
"They'll take them around, show them what the community has to offer," he said.
The town can also provide subsidized rent options for medical staff, Panasiuk said.
The Peavine Métis settlement has an open position for a nurse practitioner or physician to work there, said Gauchier, the settlement chairman.
He said they have AHS funding, but they haven't been able to find someone due to province-wide recruitment challenges.
A spokesperson for Alberta Health said since 2019, AHS has added 700 physicians, 1,800 registered nurses and 300 paramedics to the province's ranks.
The province has also boosted international recruitment efforts with 600 new bridging spaces and a new bursary that will cover up to $30,000 in costs for internationally educated nurses.
But Laughlin said he's seen physicians leave the community after a year, and current initiatives aren't enough to retain people.
He's skeptical the situation will improve.
"I believe the idea of small hospitals is over," he said.
"I doubt there will be any more built in this province."
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