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By Medicine Hat News Opinon on December 30, 2016.

If you were ill and perhaps needed an antibiotic for an acute infection on Christmas Day there was no option but to seek help at the emergency department of Medicine Hat Regional Hospital.

Of about 10 walk-in clinics in this area, not a single one was open, even for a couple hours, on Christmas Day. You would think that it could not be that hard for a coordinated effort to ensure that at least one clinic was open for a few hours.

Alberta has been talking about rapidly rising health-care costs for years. So far there has been no concerted effort to address the fact that many people have no option but to use the most expensive care â€” at emergency â€” because there is no alternative.

We are in desperate need of an urgent care type of walk-in clinic with extended opening hours and equipment to do a range of diagnostic tests. It is a concept that was in full swing in Ontario 15 or 20 years ago. In Kitchener, Ont., the urgent care clinic was open at 7 a.m. and remained open till 11 p.m. every day, seven days a week, including holidays. There was no need for an appointment; it was first-come, first-served. A range of physicians staffed the clinic and there was equipment for X-rays, a laboratory on site and a pharmacy.

The annoying part of the complete lack of such a facility in Medicine Hat is that it was a very real possibility in October 2013. During the municipal election that year it became apparent that one of the proposals for the infamous lot at 603 First Street (diagonally across the road from City Hall) was an urgent care clinic.

A group of local doctors wanted to build a multi-storey facility that would be open 18 hours a day, seven days a week. The plan was to staff it with physicians, laboratory technicians, and even diagnostic imaging on site, Dr. Paul Parks told the News at the time.

The urgent care clinic would have been the ideal environment to attract new medical graduates to our community. For newly qualified doctors, with a large student loan, being able to walk into an existing and established clinic is a huge attraction.

Mayor Ted Clugston, our newly-elected mayor at the time, recognized the benefits on a couple of levels: Developing downtown and attracting people to our community.

The infamous empty lot has attracted the attention of developers over the years but any deal has invariably collapsed.

“This is not difficult,” said Clugston in October 2013. “We have a new team on council and I think we could have an agreement about this within about a month. If not with the doctors then someone else but I think it could happen with the doctors.”

Sadly, nothing materialized in council and the doctors moved on to a different investment.

For Hatters the lack of an urgent care clinic is particularly apparent at this time of year.

For Albertans it means more money spent on health care with less convenience for patients. There is an opportunity here for Alberta Health to encourage the development of urgent-care clinics.

(Gillian Slade is a News reporter. To comment on this and other editorials, go to https://www.medicinehatnews.com/opinions or call her at 403-528-8635.)