I hope that this newsletter finds you and your family well, and preparing to joyously enter the holiday season. Best wishes for the holidays from my family to yours.
I write to provide you with an update on Alberta Health Services, and, more broadly, healthcare service across the province. Our caucus is regularly monitoring AHS results, and have noticed many disturbing trends from their quarterly results report including:
- 18 per cent of Alberta’s hospital beds occupied by patients waiting for continuing care beds, the highest-ever level recorded in the province
- Only 65 per cent of children getting mental health services within 30 days, the worst ever results compiled by the province.
- A wait of over nine months for cataract surgery in Q1, the longest wait in at least 3 years, and 2 weeks longer than a year earlier
- A three-month wait for open heart surgery, almost five weeks longer than in 2016
- A wait of almost nine months for a hip replacement, a whole month longer than in 2016
- Albertans waiting ten months for a knee replacement, again another whole month longer than in 2016
These statistics are troubling and significant degradation of timely service is clearly evident. We are all working diligently to try to offer solutions to the government on how to improve the system and to ensure it operates more efficiently (remembering, of course, that despite these indicators it still costs much more per person to operate than any other healthcare system in the country).
I would sincerely welcome any feedback on experiences you have had with AHS in the past, and any recommendation you have on improving its results. Please feel free to write to my office at [email protected]
Sincerely,
Mike Ellis, MLA
Calgary-West
