Premier Danielle Smith has announced sweeping plans to restructure Alberta Health Services (AHS) into four high-level units that she says will address long wait times and inadequate staffing.
Under the reorganization, AHS’s single service provider model will be replaced with one where four organizations provide care in the areas of acute care, primary care, continuing care, and mental health and addiction care.
Acute care includes delivery of hospital and emergency care, while the primary care unit will oversee day-to-day patient needs like visits with physicians and nurse practitioners, and care for chronic diseases.
A continuing-care organization will be set up to oversee health issues related to the quality of life, including supportive care, adult day programs, and supportive living. And the mental health and addictions organization will focus on treatment and supports for patients with addictions or mental health challenges.
“AHS will be one service provider, reporting up to acute care, which is one of the agencies. They’re not going to be at the top of that pillar, and they’re not going to be at the top of all of the pillars,” Ms. Smith said at a news conference on Nov. 8.
“Under acute care provision we‘ll of course have the Covenant Health, we will have Alberta Health Services, and we’ll have the doctor-run surgical centres as well under there, and they will all report independently up to the acute care organization that reports directly to the minister.”
The overhaul, which will take up to two years, could mean reductions in the health management ranks, but Ms. Smith says front-line health jobs will be protected.
“For too many years, Alberta’s health care system has been too complex and uncoordinated, leading to unacceptable wait times and poorer health outcomes for Albertans,” Ms. Smith said.
The NDP said the new changes are part of an agenda for privatization of health care in the province. The party released documents Nov. 7 that NDP Leader Rachel Notley referenced during question period.
“The radical overhaul of AHS tears apart health care, moves toward privatization, and even lets them play doctor while they’re at it,” Ms. Notley said.
Ms. Smith responded, saying the reforms are “about getting more dollars down to the front line, down to individual hospitals so that more decision making can be made in the communities where the care is provided.”
AHS Board
Ms. Smith dismissed the governing board of the AHS shortly after becoming premier in late 2022, and instead assigned Dr. John Cowell as an administrator to lead the organization. She said at the time this was done because the existing system wasn’t “working fast enough.”On Nov. 8, the government introduced a new seven-member governing board for AHS, and said Dr. Cowell will remain as an adviser to the new board until December. The new board, chaired by former MLA Dr. Lyle Oberg, will oversee the transition to the four new organizations.
“The seven-member board will support the transition of AHS into a health care organization with a focus on delivering high-quality acute care services within a reorganized single provincial health care system,” the government said in a news release.
The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
