First steps to reform Alberta Health Services coming this fall: premier
CBC
Premier Danielle Smith says the first steps are coming this fall to reconfigure Alberta's health delivery system — a plan the Opposition calls a recipe for more chaos from a government fresh off turning lab testing into a debacle.
"We will not delay," Smith told mayors, councillors and other local leaders at the Alberta Municipalities convention Friday.
She said Health Minister Adriana LaGrange is to present her proposal to Smith and cabinet Wednesday on how to decentralize Alberta Health Services.
"If we get the cabinet approval and the caucus approval, we would be moving on some of that direction in the fall so that we are prepared for the new budget cycle in February."
Smith has directed LaGrange to revamp the structure of Alberta Health Services, better known as AHS, saying it needs to be more responsive to regional needs and focus more on direct hospital care.
She has said LaGrange will look at whether AHS still needs to be in charge of non-acute functions such as midwifery, primary care staffing and continuing care.
Alberta finished centralizing its health system 15 years ago to create AHS.
Smith has made AHS reform the centrepiece of her leadership.
Last year, she fired the governing board of AHS and replaced it with a single administrator. She blamed the agency for failing to step up during the COVID-19 pandemic as hospitals came close to being overrun with patients.
Opposition NDP Leader Rachel Notley said Smith's plan is only going to make things worse, particularly given the province abandoned last month its attempt to fully privatize community lab services after the changes resulted in long waits for tests in Calgary and southern Alberta.
"People all across this province are struggling to get access to lab [testing] now because of the dysfunction of this UCP [government]," Notley told reporters after her speech to Alberta Municipalities delegates.
"Overlaying more disorganization on top of that is a recipe for further undermining our health care and our public health care.
"There is not a single solitary thing that this UCP government has done under [former premier] Jason Kenney's leadership or Danielle Smith's leadership that has made our health care better."
Alberta Municipalities represents and speaks for villages, towns and cities that make up about 85 per cent of the province's population.