Report highlights loss of health care workers

By Sam Leishman - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on March 27, 2025.

The provincial government is not incompetent; it is making clear choices to prioritize private health care to the detriment of Albertans, according to a new report released by Friends of Medicare this week.
Access Denied: How the Changing Accessibility of Health Care Services in Alberta Impacts Equity takes a closer look at how dwindling capacity and access is resulting in health care needs going unmet throughout the province.
The report explains that a lack of investment into public health care is leaving more and more people without a family doctor, which is ultimately causing longer wait times for emergency care, surgeries, cancer treatment and much more at hospitals.
Making a functional plan to stabilize the public health care workforce should be the province’s first course of action, says Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare.
“If we don’t actually do the work of mapping out who we need, who we have currently, how we can then retain them and recruit others into those positions, then we’re operating in the dark,” Gallaway explains. “That’s what’s been happening for many years now. We see these one-off announcements around infrastructure projects or changes to the workforce, but it’s not part of a workforce strategy, and we continue to lose health care workers.”
Gallaway says a large portion of workers in Alberta’s public system are considering leaving their careers or moving elsewhere because they are constantly feeling disrespected and overworked.
“There’s a government in British Columbia that they think is respectful, that has put in different initiatives to get people to move there. They have changed the doctor funding model that has put in nurse-patient ratios. There are things there that have made the work life better for health care workers, so of course people are choosing to move to other jurisdictions rather than staying here.”
A serious lack of funding is another big part of the equation. The report argues that dollars going into the public system aren’t keeping pace with inflation or population growth, and a focus on opening more private facilities is taking crucial money away from hospitals.
“Rather than spending money on brand new, for-profit surgical centres that are pulling workers out of our hospitals, we could spend money to have our operating rooms open for longer hours or making sure they’re fully staffed so they’re doing more operations,” says Gallaway. “That would be cheaper than building brand new facilities that only do specific types of surgeries.”
The report concludes that the Alberta government has two options: double down on profit-driven strategies that reduce access to timely, quality healthcare, or invest in proven strategies that ensure all Albertans can get the care they need and deserve.
Friends of Medicare is a non-profit, non-partisan coalition of healthcare organizations and members that work to ensure quality universal healthcare right across Alberta.

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