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By Charles Lefebvre

Alberta government announces plan to reduce surgical wait times

Dec 10, 2019 | 11:21 AM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — The provincial government has unveiled a plan to reduce surgical wait times in Alberta.

Speaking in Calgary Tuesday morning, Health Minister Tyler Shandro says the province will be expanding the number of surgical procedures performed at non-hospital surgery facilities.

“We’re going to have the best access to scheduled surgeries in Canada,” he said during the announcement. “We’re going to meet the national targets or bench marks for hip and knee replacements and for cataract surgeries for the first time.”

Current national guidelines for surgeries are a maximum of six months of waiting for hip and knee replacements, and four months for cataract surgery.

During his news conference, Shandro says Alberta is falling below those targets. In 2014, 87 per cent of Albertans received hip replacement within the six month target. In 2018, that number dropped to 70 per cent, and knee replacement dropped from 81 per cent to 66 per cent.

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Cataract surgery fell from 71 per cent to 49 per cent, he said.

His goal for Alberta is to see 80,000 more surgeries performed in the province by 2023-2024.

Currently, there are 42 non-hospital surgical facilities throughout Alberta, performing procedures such as cataract surgery or general surgery. Shandro says having more surgeries performed at these facilities will help reduce health care costs, and reduce the strain on hospitals, allowing them to focus on more complex procedures.

“Non-hospital surgical facilities have less overhead costs and spend less on their equipment and staff,” Shandro said. “They’ll help us speed up access to less complex surgeries, take strain off our hospital and government resources and help strengthen our public health system.

Shandro adds a new referral and triage system will also be introduced, to allow patients to connect with specialists quicker and see where they are on the waiting list.

However, the Friends of Medicare, an advocacy group for health care in the province, say Shandro’s announcement leaves them with more questions than answers.

Sandra Azocar, the group’s executive director, says Shandro did not provide any costs for the program. She adds the organization believes having non-hospital facilities perform these surgeries will lead to further privatization of health care in Alberta.

“Contracting out is not benign,” she said over the phone from Edmonton. “It changes the relationship between the patient and the doctor, and it turns into entrepreneurial medicine, where the extra little things that they offer are what makes them money. That’s a huge issue for us.”

More information about the new program will be revealed in the new year, Shandro says.