By Alex McCuaig

Budget Health

Budget 2020 – Alberta Health over budget but promising more surgeries

Feb 27, 2020 | 4:52 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – When it comes to heathcare, this year’s budget is not unlike those over the past decade with the health ministry going over budget in the 2019-2020 fiscal year by $217 million, nearly half of that coming from increases in acute care.

However, Budget 2020 is seeking to wrangle the often tough to tackle ministry while committing to meeting surgical wait times by conducting 80,000 additional procedures in the next three years through an Alberta Surgical Initiative.

The initative will see $14 million committed this fiscal year, $28 million in the next and $58 million in 2022-23 – a total of $100 million over the next three years.

That initiative alludes to an increase in contracting medical services to independent providers while also anticipates increases in funding to ensure operating rooms at hospitals are used more efficiently.

The budget also sets aside $100 million for a new mental health and addictions strategy and $40 million to deal with the opioid epidemic. The budget states 4,000 more publicly funded addictions and mental health treatment spaces will also be made available, though, only $1 million in capital spending is forecast for addictions and detox centres over the next three years.

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Budget 2020 also sees a decline of physician compensation from a forecast of nearly $5.37 billion in 2019 to $5.29 billion this fiscal year. The document states the new provincial framework for physician compensation prevented a $2 billion increase over the next three years.