The Acute Care Action Plan consists of six priorities: emergency department diversion, surgical access, workforce resilience, Emergency Health Services modernization, acute care patient flow and capital readiness.--SCREENSHOT
newsdesk@medicinehatnews.com
Premier Danielle Smith and three of four provincial health ministers announced the province’s new Acute Care Action Plan at a press conference in Calgary on Friday.
Smith and Matt Jones, minister of hospital and surgical services, led the conference with an overview of objectives outlined in the new plan. Minister of Assisted Living and Social Services Jason Nixon and Minister of Mental Health and Addiction Rick Wilson joined Smith and Jones for a question period following the announcement. Primary and Preventative Health Minister Adriana Lagrange was not present.
“This plan delivers short-, medium- and long-term improvements. It starts with targeted investments for immediate relief of the worst pressures, and this means hundreds more beds, tens of thousands of extra surgeries and expanded emergency and community care services, along with shorter waits, less crowding and faster care,” Smith claimed. “It means growing the health-care system so it can cope with a larger and older population.”
Highlights of the action plan include capital planning to add more than 1,000 new acute care beds in Edmonton and Calgary, and a targeted investment at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Calgary to enhance triage and accelerate patient flow.
The plan also promises to facilitate the delivery of 50,000 additional surgical procedures over the next three years by leveraging chartered surgical facilities.
Medicine Hat is one of eight sites identified for the addition of a chartered surgical facility. Local physicians say current staffing troubles leave operating rooms unoccupied at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital, and fear a chartered surgical facility will drain further resources away from the hospital.
One reporter lauded the government for the addition of new beds, but wondered where the additional staff would come from.
The premier replied that the proposed funding shift to a pay-per-service-performed model, facilitated in part by the expansion of chartered surgical facilities, will function to fill this gap.
The plan identifies a need for increasing the number of continuing care spaces across the province.
“Some of the pressures that Minister Jones is seeing elsewhere in the system is being diverted to staff, clients that we should be caring for in assisted living,” said Nixon during the media availability.
“As we bring on more capacity, we bring on more staff, we’re alleviating some of that pressure in the system without having to bring on more staff into the acute care system, because that staffing need is obviously more expensive, just because of the nature of how you operate a hospital, how acute care works.”
The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees welcomed the plan but cautioned that “without significant investments in health care staffing levels and wages this plan is doomed to fail.”
“AUPE welcomes any announcement of investment in our public health care system by the Alberta Government,” said president Sandra Azocar. “These beds are badly needed and are frankly long overdue, but for this plan to work the government needs to invest in our health care team as well.
“AUPE members working for AHS are the backbone of Alberta’s health-care system. They provide tireless, quality care every day with little respect from AHS. They are forced to work short staffed on frontlines and face lowball offers at the bargaining table. They are overworked, underpaid and fed up.”
AUPE nursing care workers consisting of Licensed Practical Nurses and Health Care Aides recently voted 98 per cent in favour of strike action. The union’s general support services workers are in formal mediation and could hold a strike vote in the coming weeks.
“If the government is serious about improving outcomes and cutting wait times in our health care system, they must first improve the working conditions, wages and staffing levels for our members.”
The premier also responded to questions regarding other ongoing issues in Alberta’s health sector, including the measles outbreak which cost Canada its elimination status earlier this week.
“It is concerning,” said Smith. “I think it’s up to everybody to be vigilant in trying to make sure that this disease doesn’t spread. It can have devastating impacts, especially on young kids, so we want to make sure that everyone knows the vaccine is available.
Smith says results from a targeted campaign to increase the vaccination rate areas with low uptake were successful, increasing uptake in some areas by 50 per cent.
