Letter: We have the space, not the staff; two-tier health care will only make things worse

By Letter to the Editor on November 26, 2025.

Dear editor,

The Alberta Government is trying to sell us a Pig in a Poke with its “Surgical Initiatives” and “Urgent Care Centres.”

Our hospitals already have underused surgical suites because of not enough medical staff. Dr. Paul Parks (previous president of the Alberta Medical Association and Medicine Hat ER Physician) has said the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital has the room for an Urgent Care Centre.

The infrastructure is there and paid for, so why pay for a new facility when the facilities we already have are being underutilized?

This government has created a two-tier health system based on an ability to pay, the Haves and the Have Nots.

NB – This two-tier system may be in violation of the Canada Health Act, which may result in lower federal healthcare transfer dollars.

The Haves get immediate access to:

– Vaccines such as COVID-19 and shingles

– Diagnostic imaging without a doctor’s order which turns into

– Access to a specialist, which results in

– Medical and or surgical treatment

The Have Nots must wait and/or go without:

– Vaccines such as COVID-19 and shingles

– Diagnostic imaging, which is only done with a doctor’s order, which delays

– Access to a specialist, which results in

– Medical and/or surgical treatment

Health care is more expensive when people cannot afford to pay to skip the queue and don’t get timely care. ER doctors are diagnosing late-stage cancers because we have a critical shortage of family doctors, and delayed diagnosis means patients are dying prematurely or requiring more expensive treatment.

The purpose of any government is to do good for its people, not harm. The government’s Action Plan for Health includes few local details and doesn’t explain how they will address the current shortage in health-care personnel (which is Canada-wide); it’s like reading a fairytale.

Albertans need real solutions to health care in our province. They need a health-care system designed by doctors, not politicians; we don’t want or need a two-tiered system. The Haves already have the choice to pay out of pocket, they can go out of the country (which will indeed shorten wait times for the Have Nots).

Albertans have always stepped up to help their fellow Albertans, when did we get so selfish?

Palliser Friends of Medicare Board

Diane MacNaughton

Co-chair

Redcliff, AB

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