Alberta outsourcing 3,000 surgeries to Calgary company

Alberta Health Minister Jason Copping says some surgeries will be outsourced to a Calgary company in a move to lower surgical wait times in the city.

Canadian Surgery Solutions will provide 3,000 additional hip and knee replacements and other joint procedures a year under a new contract with Alberta Health Services at two Calgary locations.

“Albertans, many of whom are in pain, are waiting too long for life-changing knee and hip surgeries in Calgary. Our Health Care Action Plan will accelerate adding more surgeries both at hospitals across Alberta and at chartered surgical facilities to bring down wait times to the waiting period recommended by medical experts,” Copping said.

Canadian Surgery Solutions will begin surgeries this month, which will account for a 21 per cent increase in orthopedic surgeries in the city compared to last year.

The province says there are about 6,000 people in Calgary waiting for orthopedic surgeries, with more than half waiting longer than “the clinically appropriate time” for knee and hip replacements.

When asked if this was a step towards healthcare privatization in Alberta, Copping said “this is public healthcare.”

“This is no different than you going to see your family doctor as paid through our healthcare system,” he explained. “This is contracting additional resources to build our system.”

Meanwhile, Chris Galloway with Friends of Medicare says this is the UCP “doubling down” on privatization and that this isn’t a short-term solution.

“Creating a for-profit, private surgical center doesn’t create more nurses or more surgeons. It simply fragments the system,” Galloway said.

“And we’re already experiencing a staffing crisis. Doubling down on more and more of these for-profit center surgeries is only going to make that worse.”

The Alberta NDP echoes Galloway’s comments, saying the provincial government is expanding surgical privatization.

David Shepherd, health critic for the NDP, says this will do lasting harm to Alberta’s public healthcare system and will lead to more out-of-pocket costs for Albertans.

“Expanding for-profit care takes staff and resources away from the public system, which is already experiencing severe staffing shortages thanks to Danielle Smith and the UCP,” Sheperd said in a statement.

“Operating rooms in hospitals have been empty for extended periods of time because Smith and the UCP are driving healthcare workers out of the province and out of their professions.”

–With files from Courtney Theriault, Lisa Grant, and The Canadian Press