Alberta looks to improve wait times for surgeries

CALGARY (660 NEWS) – The UCP government says it’s keeping its promise to reduce wait times for surgery in Alberta.

Health Minister Tyler Shandro was at the Southern Alberta Eye Centre in Calgary Tuesday to announce the Alberta Surgical Wait Times Initiative.

#HappeningNow: Alberta's Health Minister @shandro is in #Calgary to talk about surgery wait times. "We promised we would reduce surgical wait times, and we're delivering on that promise," he says."Our plan puts the needs of patients before ideology." #yyc #alberta #ableg @660NEWS pic.twitter.com/d5SDxoTyfS

— Saif Kaisar (@StaySaif) December 10, 2019

Shandro said this program will provide up to 80,000 more publicly funded surgeries over the next four years to meet wait time targets.

“We promised we would reduce surgical wait times, and we’re delivering on that promise. This ambitious plan will mean Alberta will have the best wait time performance in Canada. Our plan puts the needs of patients before ideology, relying on private and public partners to achieve fundamental system improvements.”

The initiative will improve and standardize the surgical system from the time patients seek advice from their doctor, to when they’re referred to a specialist, to their surgery and rehabilitation.

Shandro couldn’t give many details on how much the province will put towards the initiative or where the money is coming from.

“There will be increased costs on the physician fees as well as making sure the non-hospital surgical facilities are at full capacity. Some of the increased costs is obviously going to have to come from efficiencies in the system, which will come out of the AHS review.”

Shandro said that review should wrap up by the end of the month, with the results made public by mid-January.

According to Alberta Health Services, the average wait time this year was 28 weeks compared to just over 26 weeks last year.