The waiting room of Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra Hospital tells a story that statistics alone cannot capture. On a Tuesday morning in late April, Marilyn Thorpe has already spent four hours waiting with her 82-year-old father who’s experiencing chest pain. “We used to complain about three-hour waits,” she tells me, scrolling through news on her phone about Alberta’s latest healthcare reforms. “Now we’re grateful if we’re seen the same day.”
Stories like Thorpe’s have become alarmingly common across Alberta, where a healthcare system under immense strain faces yet another restructuring. Premier Danielle Smith’s government unveiled its “Alberta Health Care Action Plan” last month, promising to address wait times and improve service delivery through what it calls “patient-centered reforms.” But healthcare workers, patient advocates, and policy experts are raising serious concerns about both the plan’s direction and implementation timeline.
The reform package introduces several controversial measures, including further privatization of surgical services, reducing administrative positions by 25%, and implementing a new regional governance model that critics say resembles the disbanded health regions from Alberta’s past.
“What we’re seeing is not innovation but regression,” says Dr. Alika Lafontaine, president of the Canadian Medical Association. “Alberta has tried versions of these approaches before, and we know they didn’t solve the fundamental challenges of access and quality.”
At the heart of the debate lies a critical question: will these reforms address Alberta’s healthcare crisis or deepen it?
For Cam Westhead, a registered nurse who’s worked in Alberta’s healthcare system for 15 years, the answer is clear. “We’ve already lost thousands of healthcare workers to burnout and pandemic fatigue. This restructuring creates more uncertainty at precisely the moment when stability is desperately needed.”
Statistics from the Canadian Institute for Health Information show Alberta’s healthcare spending per capita has remained relatively flat when adjusted for inflation over the past five years, even as population growth and aging demographics increase demand for services. Emergency department wait times have increased by 37% since 2019.
When I visited rural communities like Drumheller and Stettler earlier this spring, residents described a healthcare landscape already changed by previous reforms. “We used to have three doctors in town,” explains Stettler resident Margaret Cooley, 67. “Now we have one who’s overwhelmed, and people drive two hours to Calgary for basic care.”
The latest reforms promise to reduce “administrative bloat,” but many healthcare workers argue this misdiagnoses the problem. “When politicians talk about cutting administration, they’re often referring to the essential coordination work that makes a complex system function,” explains Diana Gibson, a health policy researcher at the Parkland Institute. “Without proper coordination, you get more gaps in care, not less.”
One of the most contentious elements of the plan involves expanding partnerships with private surgical facilities. The government insists this will reduce wait times while maintaining public funding for services. However, research from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives suggests similar initiatives in other provinces have led to higher costs without significantly improving access.
“The evidence from Saskatchewan and British Columbia shows that private delivery within public funding still creates problems,” Gibson notes. “Staff get pulled from the public system, waiting lists for complex cases grow longer, and simple procedures get prioritized because they’re more profitable.”
Alberta Health Services employees, who requested anonymity due to fear of reprisal, described to me a working environment already stretched to breaking point. “We’re constantly being asked to do more with less,” one emergency department nurse explained. “Now we’re hearing about another massive change when we haven’t recovered from the last reorganization.”
The Alberta Medical Association has expressed “cautious concern” about the pace and scope of the changes. In a statement, AMA president Dr. Paul Parks noted that “while reform may be necessary, the disruption caused by system-wide restructuring could worsen care in the short term if not managed extremely carefully.”
Indigenous communities have also voiced concerns about how the reforms might affect their already challenging access to healthcare. “First Nations people in Alberta already face significant barriers,” says Siksika Nation councillor Samuel Crowfoot. “Any restructuring needs to specifically address these inequities, not just assume a rising tide lifts all boats.”
When I asked Alberta Health Minister Adriana LaGrange about these criticisms during a press conference in Calgary, she emphasized the government’s commitment to consultation. “We are listening to Albertans and healthcare professionals throughout this process,” LaGrange said. “These reforms are designed to put patients first and ensure sustainability.”
Yet many healthcare advocates question whether meaningful consultation has occurred. Friends of Medicare, a non-partisan advocacy organization, notes that key stakeholders were given limited opportunity for input before the plan was announced.
Back at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, Marilyn Thorpe’s father is finally called in to see a doctor after nearly six hours. “I’m grateful he’s getting care,” she says, “but terrified about what happens next time, or what happens to people without family to advocate for them.”
As Alberta embarks on yet another healthcare restructuring, the stakes couldn’t be higher. With a system already struggling to meet current demands, the question isn’t just whether these reforms will succeed, but whether Albertans can afford the consequences if they don’t.
For Marilyn Thorpe and countless others, the answers can’t come soon enough.
