Strathmore Handi-Bus backlogged

Times Contributor 

 

The Strathmore Handi-Bus is experiencing scheduling problems, due to the increased demand for its services.

Gundy LaChance, a Strathmore resident, booked the Strathmore Handi-Bus weeks in advance, to provide a return trip for her elderly mother (age 94) to a dental appointment. There was no problem with the drop off, but LaChance definitely had some complaints about the subsequent pickup. 

Her mother waited several hours with no definite time given for when the bus would arrive for her mother’s pickup. She said her inquiries were responded to in a rude manner, when she asked for a more precise time.

“This is disgusting. You don’t leave an older person sitting that long,” said LaChance.

LaChance had heard that there were problems with the Handi-Bus from other people and after this incident she was ready to believe there is a concern. 

Wheatland Councillor Alice Booth has often said the service is struggling to meet the need of medical calls, let alone those clients calling for social reasons. She said many calls are medical appointments in Calgary, where one request can take two to four hours to complete. 

Florence Vander Velde, a board member for the society said the society is funded by donations. She said the Handi-Bus has a priority system set out by the board, but the trips to Calgary can cause other calls to back up, as the patients or drivers may not be given specific times for patients waiting for hospital discharges, lab tests, health consultations and doctors appointments.

“I would say 99 per cent of the time scheduling is managed efficiently and one per cent of the time people have to wait,” said Vander Velde. “The service has six buses and we will be adding another in the fall.” 

She said there are a lot of calls from Sagewood and most of the other senior centres provide their own transportation for their clients. 

The Handi-Bus service issue has been discussed in the media several times over the last six months. The Town of Strathmore, County of Wheatland, Alberta Health Services, the taxi services, Sagewood, and the Strathmore public have been presented with a request to find a way to ease the pressures on the service, but no answers to an overbooked service have surfaced.

The Strathmore adult day program recently received notice that AHS would no longer pay for seniors trips to the day program offered by Alberta Health Services. The Handi-Bus transports up to eight patients a day to the program. Vander Velde said if these seniors have to rely on cab services it would definitely be a burden on their budgets. She said the day program had a dedicated bus for the program and she wondered where the funding would go and what would happen to that bus.

“We regret any inconvenience this change will cause for the clients of the program. AHS is no longer able to operate this bus service in a safe and economical manner. The bus was donated some time ago and has several mechanical problems that require the bus to be taken out of service,” said Brenda Hubbard, AHS Vice President and Chief Operations Officer for Central and Southern Alberta. “This change allows AHS to focus its resources on health care services, rather than on transportation, which is not a core health care service. This is also consistent with how clients travel to and from day programs in other communities.”

Hubbard said clients would be dealt with on a one-on-one basis. In cases of financial hardship, clients may be connected with either the Ministry of Human Services or AHS.