Alberta nursing associations split on Smith’s AHS restructuring plans
Posted Nov 11, 2023 9:34 am.
Two major nursing associations in the province are split on how they feel about the premier’s plans to de-centralize Alberta Health Services (AHS).
Earlier this week, the province announced changes, which will see AHS split up into four organizations each taking responsibility for acute, primary, continuing care, and mental health and addiction.
Additionally, 13 advisory councils will be created, including one Indigenous council, representing regional perspectives and advising these new organizations.
Premier Danielle Smith said it would allow for a more accountable, flexible healthcare network, and reactions quickly started to pour in.
Smith also said the plan has nothing to do with privatization.
“I made a public healthcare guarantee to Albertans,” she in a news conference on Wednesday.
“That means no one will ever pay out of pocket for a visit to a doctor or healthcare services — and that’s not changing.”
Watch: Overhaul of Alberta healthcare: AHS to be split up into four areas
Dr. Susan Prendergast, president of the Nurse Practitioner Association of Alberta (NPAA) spoke to Postmedia, saying her organization supports the decision to restructure healthcare oversight in the province.
She says the province’s announcement in the middle of October that will allow nurse practitioners to open clinics on their own and to independently provide primary care will help the healthcare system.
However, immediately following the announcement, United Nurses of Alberta (UNA) president, Heather Smith issued a statement accusing the province of misdiagnosing the issues with health care.
“The wrong diagnosis always creates the wrong treatment. The government has diagnosed the problem in Alberta’s health care system as being the structure of AHS. A far more serious problem is the shortage of nurses and other medical professionals, as well as beds and capacity. Let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater,” her statement reads.
In another statement released shortly after, she says the UNA has many “unanswered questions” about the reorganization and the jobs.
“We will aggressively seek answers to these questions and communicate them to our members,” her statement reads.
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Meanwhile, Dr. Paul Parks, president of the Alberta Medical Association, says ultimately, the success of the plan will depend on the details.
“Talking to my colleagues across the province, we do not want more silos, more redundancy, more bureaucracy,” he explained.
“I think everyone to a tee would say — and including patients and I think the minister of health and the premier — is that we need to figure out how the whole health care system will work together.”
Watch: Alberta announces supports for nurse practitioners
He also says the path forward will depend on the province’s willingness to consult with medical professionals during the transition.
“We do need more local input in how things might work differently in different regions or different rural communities than in the bigger centres, so we do need to also do better integration around all the care that … happens in the community. All that care, how do we integrate it with what happens in the hospital?” Parks explained.
“And of course, once a patient gets better and goes back out into the community, whether it’s to a family physician or to continuing care, long-term care, or ongoing mental health care. How do we integrate and put those together? That’s been a challenge Alberta has been struggling with for a long time.”
The changes, coming over the next 18-24 months, will see AHS split up into four organizations each taking responsibility for acute, primary, continuing care, and mental health and addiction.
The first organization, continuing care, is expected to be created this spring, while the acute care, primary care and mental health and addictions organizations will follow.
-With files from Logan Stein
