CPSA’s message to Albertans on COVID-19

During this stressful time for Albertans, many of us are relying on our physicians and other healthcare practitioners for help and guidance. As Alberta’s physician regulator, we’re working hard to make sure your physicians have the support and guidance they need to take the best possible care of you.

Today, we are reaching out to Albertans to share a few things CPSA believes are important for you to know.

If you aren’t already, we ask all Albertans to look to Dr. Deena Hinshaw, our Chief Medical Officer of Health, for guidance during this time. She, as well as Canada’s Federal Minister of Health, Patty Hajdu, have strongly advised that people protect themselves and each other by staying home when possible and practising physical distancing. We echo that sentiment. To do our part, our entire organization is following Dr. Hinshaw’s advice and working remotely from home. We encourage anyone who can, to do the same. We’ve shared our advice with Alberta’s physicians on how they can respect those recommendations while still providing care.

We have also shared guidance with Alberta’s physicians on how they can adapt their practice to meet public health requirements. This could include relying on telephone, email or video appointments. These are stressful times, but we ask you to be patient with your physician. They’re managing very challenging workloads, or may also be sick and in isolation themselves.

CPSA supports the direction taken by Alberta Health and Alberta Health Services to postpone elective or not-urgent procedures. We have asked all the diagnostic facilities and non-hospital surgical facilities that we accredit not to engage in any procedures or patient visits that are not considered to be urgent in nature until Alberta has safely managed this pandemic.

Lastly, it’s important that Albertans are up-front and honest with their physicians. Your medical and travel history are critical to ensuring physicians can diagnose you properly and focus their energy and limited resources in the right way. That may mean that a fellow Albertan with more pressing health issues gets seen or treated before you do or that your doctor may feel you don’t need to be tested. It’s incredibly important that we come together to support the well-being of our fellow Albertans for the greater good of our society.

That is what it is going to take during these times – Albertans working collectively to make sure our community has the resources it needs to handle this crisis. Your individual actions matter and we all have a role to play to manage the spread of COVID-19.

Albertan Resources:

COVID-19 info for Albertans
COVID-19 self-assessment test
Health Link 811
How to self-isolate