Alberta government to contract out surgeries to reduce wait times
Posted Sep 9, 2022 4:21 pm.
Last Updated Sep 9, 2022 7:36 pm.
Alberta is set to contract out surgeries in the province, a goal to help reduce surgery wait times.
Premier Jason Kenney and Health Minister Jason Copping announced on Wednesday the province is going to boost publicly funded surgeries in Central Zone and South Zone communities by five per cent.
They have issued two requests for proposals for contractors to open two surgical facilities in the province.
“The fact remains that more than 70,000 — seven zero — 70,000 Albertans are waiting for their surgeries, and more than half are waiting longer than the clinically recommended period, and that is simply unacceptable,” Kenney said.
“We owe it to everyone who is waiting with anxiety, many waiting in pain and discomfort. Some who have put their lives on hold to fix this.”
The South zone of Alberta includes Lethbridge and Medicine Hat, while the Central zone includes Drumheller, Lloydminster, Red Deer and Rocky Mountain House.
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AHS are targeting around 30,000 ophthalmology surgeries in these facilities this year.
They are also looking to schedule 1,350 surgeries in the central zone, and about 1,250 more procedures in the south zone. These will range from hip and knee surgeries, to general surgeries.
Coping says AHS has been increasing surgical capacity in hospitals, along with the number of surgeries at chartered surgical facilities.
“Adding more surgery capacity in central Alberta and communities south of Calgary means more Albertans can get their hip and knee replacements and other types of surgeries sooner and live a better life with less pain and limitations. We are funding more surgeries at chartered surgical facilities and hospitals to fulfil our promise to bring down wait times to the waiting period recommended by medical experts,” Copping said.
They say main operating room surgical suite hours have been increased at hospitals, and that is steadily reducing the surgical wait-list.
Alberta’s surgical wait-list currently sits at eight per cent above pre-pandemic levels. The surgical wait-list for adults is around 74,000, compared with about 68,000 in February 2020, before the pandemic.
Not in the interest of helping Albertans
However, Friends of Medicare say this is another method of bringing Alberta closer to privatization of health care, and the province is doing this to help the private sector load their pockets with money.
“This has never been about improving access or expanding capacity,” said Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare. “This government has shown over and over that their myopic pursuit of supposed ‘savings’ will always trump what’s best for patients and their families. At the end of the day, this is about securing more profits for private health care operators.”
Gallaway contends private health care will siphon health resources, including health care workers in the public system. This, he says, will increase wait times even further, and will negatively impact patient needs.
“After over two years of immense pressure on our public health care system, it’s appalling that this government is trying to capitalize on the pandemic backlog in an attempt to justify their privatization agenda,” said Gallaway.
“Albertans have had enough of empty promises when it comes to their health. We need to be improving access and expanding capacity in our public system, not undermining it with yet another privatization scheme.”
The official opposition leader Rachel Notley says this is “bad news for the province,” during a press conference Wednesday.
“Jason Kenny’s attempts to whine about AHS is nothing but a continuation of a long practice of failing to take responsibility for really bad decisions that he has made that hurt Albertans,” Notley said.
Alberta’s NDP leader Rachel Notley, left, speaks at a press conference with MLA David Eggen on Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022. (Courtesy of Caleb Sorenson)
Notley says patients in Red Deer are waiting for 14 hours at the emergency room, and there are Albertans “literally sprawled out on the floor at the waiting room at the Misericordia, because there is no doctor there to see them.”
“We have a serious crisis in our hospitals, and our ambulance systems and in our doctor’s offices. But, we didn’t hear a word of acknowledgement of these problems from the premier today. He also failed to acknowledge that his plan for privatization will actually serve to steal more scarce resources from our struggling public system,” Notley said.
AHS is aiming to set up and finalize contracts with about 6,000 orthopedic surgeries in chartered surgical facilities per year.
The Alberta government say about 39,000 procedures were performed at chartered surgical facilities; which is 13 per cent of surgeries in Alberta.
In 2021-22, about 55,000 surgeries were performed in these facilities, or 20 per cent of surgeries.
The surgical wait-list currently sits at eight per cent above pre-pandemic levels. The surgical wait-list for adults is about 73,750, compared with about 68,000 in February 2020, before the pandemic.
The government said in a statement the chartered surgical facilities are public health care, and they pay for the procedures and follow the same safety and professional standards as any hospital. They add chartered surgical facilities have been offering publicly funded surgeries to Albertans since the 1990s.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta accredits chartered surgical facilities for quality and safety standards.
Alberta’s Budget 2022 is going to provide $133 million over the next three years to expand and build new operating rooms in hospitals across the province, including in Calgary, Edmonton, Edson, Grande Prairie, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat and Rocky Mountain House.
-With files from Tiffany Goodwein
