Province taking immediate action to improve access to primary health care in Alberta

The plan is to develop a system where doctors can spend more time with patients and less time doing paperwork.

The province says it will also put $20 million in a fund to help Indigenous communities deliver primary health care services.

Last fall, health care leaders, Indigenous partners and experts from across Canada and around the world formed advisory panels and identified immediate, medium and long term improvements to strengthen Alberta’s primary health care system.

In a release, the province lists the actions being taken immediately:

Creating a primary health care division within Alberta Health.
Allocating $57 million over three years to provide family doctors and nurse practitioners with support to help manage their increasing number of patients. Each provider has the potential to receive up to $10,000 annually.
Working with the Alberta Medical Association to create a task force to recommend a new payment model for family physicians that encourages comprehensive primary care – where a patient has a regular family doctor who they develop a long-term relationship with and who works with them to ensure all their health care needs are met.
Developing a memorandum of understanding with the Alberta Medical Association to collaborate on a transition to a new physician compensation model, modernize primary care governance and enable family doctors to spend more time with patients and less time on paperwork and immediately stabilize primary care.
Expanding online mental health services, allowing doctors to bill for virtual mental health checks and therapy, and compensating them for extra time spent with patients virtually.
Ensuring doctors get paid if patients can’t prove insurance coverage, reducing administrative burden. This is known as “good faith” claims.
Introducing a payment system that will support nurse practitioners to open their own clinics, take on patients and offer services based on their scope of practice, training and expertise. Nurse practitioners have completed graduate studies ensuring that they are properly trained to examine patients, provide diagnoses and prescribe medication.

The release also lists immediate measures for strengthening Indigenous health care :

Creating an Indigenous health division within Alberta Health.
Creating a $20-million fund for Indigenous communities to design and deliver innovative primary health care services and projects.
Creating an Indigenous patient complaints investigator and Elders roster to investigate incidences of racism during the delivery of health care and provide culturally safe support to Indigenous patients throughout the patient complaint process.
Investing in a community-based Indigenous patient navigator program to support Indigenous peoples throughout their health care journey.

The province says the next step will be to further engage with health care partners, including Indigenous communities, to implement these immediate priorities and the broader recommendations as part of the Modernizing Alberta’s Primary Health Care System (MAPS) initiative.

(The Canadian Press)

by Brian Konrad with files from Canadian Press

Province taking immediate action to improve access to primary health care in Alberta

Our Community