New agency to take over primary care in Alberta starting Nov. 1

The new provincial health agency that will oversee and coordinate the delivery of primary care in Alberta will be operational come Nov. 1, the province’s health minister said Tuesday.

Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange was joined by the incoming CEO of Primary Care Alberta, Dr. Kim Simmonds, who is currently the assistant deputy minister of strategic planning and performance at Alberta Health. Simmonds is an epidemiologist and and academic who has worked for various Alberta health departments in the last decade.

Simmonds says there is lots of work to do to improve primary care in the province, but she’s excited to be a part of it.

“If primary care is to be the foundation on which the entire health system stands, every Albertan must have an ongoing connection and trusting relationship with a family doctor or health care team,” she said. “They must belong to a health home where they are known and where they don’t have to tell their health story over and over again.”

The province claims the transition to Primary Care Alberta “will create a modern, more responsive, and unified healthcare system that prioritizes patients, empowers front-line health care professionals and helps reduce pressures on the entire health system.”

Its first priority is to make sure every Albertan has access to high-quality primary care services in all areas of the province, officials said.

Longer term priorities for the agency include incentivizing care models and that improve health outcomes and patient experience, providing tools to primary care providers, such as improving the current Find a Doctor website and e-referral, and engaging doctors while giving them opportunities to lead their peers through the switchover.

The province also says Primary Care Alberta will set standards for primary care so services are consistent, fund primary care networks that bring practitioners together to implement provincial initiatives and address regional needs, and develop a chronic disease care model to reduce the burden of chronic disease on patients and the healthcare system.

The province said more than 30,000 people took the opportunity to share their feedback on Alberta’s healthcare system through in-person sessions, online forms, and telephone town halls.

Major areas of concern identified by those who participated in engagement include access to health care, communication and transparency, supporting and sustaining the healthcare workforce, addressing the needs of patients and providers in rural, remote, and Indigenous communities, empowering decision-making at the local level, accountability of the healthcare system, and system integration and co-ordination.

Feedback also indicated Albertans are in favour of a fully-integrated healthcare system, which the province is moving away from.

In November 2023, the province announced its plans to decentralize Alberta Health Services (AHS) after almost 14 years.

At the time, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said her government would create one provincial healthcare system with “specialized areas of focus” by dividing AHS into four separate organizations, being primary care, acute care, continuing care, and mental health and addictions.

Mental health and addictions was the first department to face changes; as of September, Recovery Alberta oversees those services.

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