TWO HILLS, Alta. – Nancy Mereska serves chocolate cake and tea from a silver set in her farmhouse kitchen while proudly showing family pictures and offering to share recipes.
The grandmother of 13, wearing comfortable moccasins and a ready smile, hardly seems like an activist.
But the founder of Rural Citizens Supporting Quality Health Care is on a mission. That becomes clear as she descends into her colorful basement office.
“Welcome down to the nerve centre,” said Mereska, noting the area was her 50th birthday present to herself.
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Among sewing projects and bookshelves sits a new computer surrounded by files, newspapers, contact lists and letters. She uses the machine to network and store information.
“I would like to network the whole province because our health problems are not going away,” said Mereska.
Members of her committee, who span the Lakeland health region in northeastern Alberta, communicate with each other by telephone and are in regular contact with other research groups. Individually they write letters, give speeches and call government officials to get their messages out.
The group’s steering committee, formed at a town hall meeting last June after yet another doctor left Two Hills, wants the province to recognize health-care suggestions from rural Albertans, ensure standardization of care and and prevent the closures of rural facilities and services.
When rural facilities close, it means longer distances to a hospital, job losses and the shuffle of elderly, long-term patients, said Mereska.
The committee organized a rally earlier this month to oppose the closure of the Vilna health centre. It took Mereska almost 30 hours to call all her contacts to inform them. They in turn called their contacts and 400 people attended a recent protest meeting.
In January, Mereska urged contacts to attend public health forums organized by the government. Closer to home, she has concerns with the skill level of staff at a new Alzheimer’s facility in Myrnam.
One of the committee’s major goals is to dismantle private, for-profit clinics and hospitals to prevent a two-tiered health system in Alberta.
Mereska, who moved to Canada from the United States in 1970, knows some U.S. citizens don’t visit doctors because they can’t afford to.
“I don’t want to see that happen as long as I’m in Canada. And I’m hoping 20 million or so other people feel the same way.”
One of her sons is about to set up his own medical practice in British Columbia and she convinced him not to become a U.S. doctor.
“I gave him what is my social conscript lecture. I told him that ‘no, you’re not going to leave this country after tuition and scholarships because we need your brains.’ “
Although Mereska, who finished her bachelor of arts degree in 1991, had previous experience as an activist, setting up the rural health-care committee wasn’t easy. She admits the issue has kept her up half the night when she gets worked up and she remembers $500 phone bills before flat-rate long distance rates were implemented.
“That kind of hurt because it came out of my savings. But no pain, no gain.”
And Mereska said she’ll continue fighting until she sees better health care in the area.
Mereska can be contacted at mereska@vegnet.com.
