Healthcare Reform

The Problems

- In 2019, before COVID, Alberta had the highest per capita healthcare spending besides one province. During COVID, Alberta suffered from an unprepared and overwhelmed healthcare system. Our spending is not translating into support for our healthcare workers. We are seeing two solutions offered: cut healthcare spending because we’re “bloated” or throw money at the healthcare system and expect our problems to fix themselves.

- Canada ranks very low among developed countries for care beds per 1000 people. Alberta is ranked among the last provinces in Canada for health care beds with only 2 per 1000 population. We are the last of the last.

- Alberta is still behind the provincial average wait time for medically necessary treatment, which is 25 weeks. Alberta patients, on average, waited 32 weeks pre-covid.

The Solutions

- With the Saskatchewan surgical initiative, Saskatchewan successfully cut their surgery wait times in half from 26 weeks to 14 weeks. We need to contract more chartered surgical facilities to do more surgeries in Alberta. This has already been happening in Alberta, with 15-30% of surgeries being done through chartered clinics. It is also not uncommon; BC and Saskatchewan are in the same boat working to charter more, even with B.C being an NDP province.

- In 2017, the auditor general did an audit of AHS. The consensus drawn is that with the resources we allocate to healthcare we have the potential to offer world class healthcare. The UCP is acting on the report but we need to do more. Ensuring that Alberta Health receives real time data from AHS is critical. Currently, the only entity that can investigate AHS is AHS. We need more accountability so our healthcare workers can have the support they need.

- We need to have a quota at our med schools for rural doctors. Our rural communities are desperate for doctors. We need to ensure our med schools are putting through students who want to practice rurally. Even if they have grades in the mid-low 90s, we need seats for rural students/doctors.

- I will be vocal against the expansions to the MAID program, and speak up for the value of life.