Confusion and frustration.

Those are the feelings that 56-year-old Calgary grandmother Barbara Pencala was left with after she learned on Wednesday via email that Alberta Health Services (AHS) is concluding its long COVID Inter-Professional Outpatient Program (IPOP).

The temporary initiative was set up in 2021 and was never meant to be permanent, but the news came as a surprise to hundreds of program patients, many of whom took to social media to express their concerns.

“It just felt standardized. Shocking, tears were streaming down my face as I was reading the email,” Pencala told Global News when describing her reaction just hours earlier.