Budget 2024 Funding for Acute Care and Surgical Initiative
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
151.52832
Summary
Learn English with Minister of Infrastructure and Minister of the Province of Alberta, Peter P. Guthrie. Minister P.G. Long, MP for the Rural Health Division and Speaker of the Alberta House of Commons, Ms. Martine Long, and J.J. Chilton, Minister for Rural Health, share their thoughts on the Alberta Surgical Initiative Capital Program, Budget 2024, and the ongoing construction projects underway across the province.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
receive timely access to surgical care i am joined today by pete guthrie minister of infrastructure
00:00:07.840
martin long parliamentary secretary for rural health sean shilton interim vice president of
00:00:14.400
clinical operations and chief operating officer for ahs and janie clark clink senior operating
00:00:22.480
officer at the royal alexandra hospital lois hole hospital for women and sturgeon community hospital
00:00:30.800
Albertans deserve access to health care services when and where they need them.
00:00:35.920
We should not be seeing discrepancies in health care delivery or in the quality of care across
00:00:41.440
the province and every Albertan should be able to access surgical care within clinically
00:00:47.280
recommended timelines. Our government is working to refocus the health care system
00:00:53.440
to prioritize patients and improve the delivery of services in every corner of the province.
00:01:00.000
Albertans deserve reliable health care and a new integrated system will improve patient
00:01:05.880
outcomes and better support our world-class health care professionals.
00:01:13.460
And while we continue to engage with Albertans and advance our refocusing efforts, we need
00:01:17.960
to take immediate steps to boost capacity, reduce wait times and find efficiencies to
00:01:27.120
Through Budget 2024, we are investing $313 million over three years in the Alberta Surgical
00:01:37.460
These funds will be used to renovate surgical suites and support areas in various communities
00:01:44.800
We are also providing $305 million to Alberta Health Services to enable the completion of
00:01:55.620
an increase of almost 6% from 2022-2023 year. The Alberta Surgical Initiative focused on
00:02:04.120
improving every patient's surgical journey from the moment they seek initial advice to
00:02:09.620
when they are referred to a specialist to their surgery and rehabilitation period. It
00:02:15.420
recognizes the need to put patients first and to manage capacity and to do whatever we can
00:02:21.860
ensure Albertans receive required surgeries within clinically recommended wait times.
00:02:27.220
We are also providing $159 million over three years to renovate several medical device repro
00:02:33.700
reprocessing departments which is really the sterilization areas to support surgical services
00:02:39.860
and help address the surgical backlog. So these renovations will improve efficiency and
00:02:45.300
sustainability enabling more surgeries to be performed locally budget 2024 puts albertans
00:02:52.900
first it recognizes the need to refocus our health care system while making investments
00:02:58.420
to ensure albertans have access to the care they need it prioritizes patients while improving
00:03:04.180
service delivery and empowering health care professionals and it invests in surgical care
00:03:10.820
because no one should have to wait for answers or for treatment longer than clinically recommended
00:03:16.900
the funding we are announcing today will make a real difference to patients across the province
00:03:21.780
while we continue to build a better system that supports albertans for generations to come
00:03:28.340
so thank you for being here and i'd like to invite my colleague
00:03:31.140
Minister of Infrastructure, Pete Guthrie, to say a few words.
00:03:47.960
I'm pleased to be here today along with Minister LaGrange.
00:03:53.680
MLA Long, Mr. Chilton, and Ms. Klink to share this exciting news.
00:04:00.260
Now that you have just heard, Alberta's government is investing $313 million into the Alberta Surgical Initiative program to increase surgical capacity across the province.
00:04:11.440
This investment will improve health care and its timely delivery for all Albertans.
00:04:17.720
My ministry and Alberta Health Services share the responsibility for delivering these important projects throughout the province.
00:04:25.240
AHS is the lead for design initiatives up to $5 million,
00:04:29.180
and my ministry takes responsibility for those above this threshold.
00:04:34.620
Alberta Infrastructure is now working on 20 projects in 11 different communities,
00:04:43.080
Currently, development is underway for several of our rural communities,
00:04:47.100
including Brooks, Port Saskatchewan, Innisfil, Olds, Pinoka, and Stetler,
00:04:52.080
not to mention a couple that are nearing completion in lethbridge two operating rooms
00:04:58.320
are being upgraded and expanded along with the addition of more inpatient space when the project
00:05:04.400
is finished later this year the redevelopment will double the hospital's surgical capacity
00:05:09.280
and i'm also pleased to share that we are putting the final touches on an expansion and renovation
00:05:15.440
in rocky mountain house that will add a brand new operating room and a medical device reprocessing
00:05:21.520
department over the next few years the 2024 capital plan allocates 159 million to renovate
00:05:30.640
medical device reprocessing facilities throughout alberta this funding will benefit communities as
00:05:36.160
far north as fort mcmurray and as far south as drumheller expanding these existing facilities
00:05:43.440
enables hospital to sterilize medical equipment and instruments for reuse creating efficiencies
00:05:49.920
while also reducing costs these initiatives are not just an investment in our health care system
00:05:56.640
these projects support hundreds of jobs relating to planning design and construction as minister
00:06:03.040
i'm excited to be delivering on alberta's heavy infrastructure agenda and i look forward to what
00:06:08.880
the future holds so with that i'd like to turn it over to mla martin long parliamentary secretary
00:06:15.520
for rural health to provide some more remarks thank you minister guthrie the investments being
00:06:30.480
made through budget 2024 will result in more surgeries being completed across the province
00:06:35.520
and will benefit rural communities like the one i'm proud to call home rural and especially remote
00:06:41.820
Albertans are faced with geographic barriers, limited healthcare infrastructure, limited
00:06:46.340
access to technology, and a lack of healthcare professionals, particularly specialized healthcare
00:06:55.000
The current surgical wait times exacerbate these already difficult circumstances and
00:07:00.200
can lead to negative outcomes for patients and their families.
00:07:04.860
These investments are critical, and they will make a difference.
00:07:09.260
The funding being provided to the Alberta Surgical Initiative capital program will help
00:07:12.620
to bridge existing gaps by renovating surgical suites and support areas by creating new spaces
00:07:22.100
Included in the plan are renovations to facilities in rural communities that are home to hard
00:07:25.440
working Albertans who have waited far too long for these improvements.
00:07:30.320
Budget 2024 also includes an investment of $159 million over three years for renovations
00:07:36.460
to medical device reprocessing departments across the province, including in Westlock
00:07:40.780
and Drumheller. More funding for surgeries, health infrastructure, and technology means more
00:07:47.160
Albertans from all corners of the province will receive surgeries closer to home within clinically
00:07:52.200
recommended wait times. That means more Albertans receiving the care they need when they need it,
00:07:58.140
and that is something we can all be proud of and excited about. I'd like to thank the Minister of
00:08:02.920
health for ensuring the voices of rural and remote Albertans continue being heard especially when it
00:08:07.880
comes to their health and well-being. I'm proud to be part of a government that is focused on
00:08:12.160
ensuring Albertans have a reliable accessible and equitable health care system. It is needed
00:08:17.260
and it is deserved. I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues and our partners to
00:08:22.120
deliver a refocused health care system that will serve our province for generations to come.
00:08:26.680
I'd now like to invite Sean Shelton to say a few words.
00:08:32.920
Thank you, Parliamentary Secretary Long, and thank you Minister Laura Grange for inviting
00:08:40.920
Timely access to surgeries is important to Albertans and it's important to Alberta Health
00:08:45.680
Our partnership with Alberta Health on the Alberta Surgical Initiative, or ASI, is focused
00:08:51.940
on ensuring Albertans receive their scheduled surgeries within their clinically recommended
00:08:59.420
More people are now waiting within clinically recommended wait times for their surgeries
00:09:02.600
than did before the pandemic as of march we have 61.3 percent of cases at adult sites are waiting
00:09:09.880
within clinically recommended wait times and that compares to about 52.1 percent from a year ago
00:09:16.360
there are 4 400 fewer cases waiting outside clinically recommended wait times compared
00:09:21.800
to the same time a year ago we've also made significant improvements to the surgical wait
00:09:27.000
list in 23 24 fiscal year completing approximately five percent more surgeries compared to the
00:09:32.440
previous year we're now on track for approximately 305 000 surgeries in this fiscal which includes
00:09:38.600
more than 60 000 cases today completed in chartered surgical facilities the improvement's good but we
00:09:44.920
aren't done yet and there's more to do the asi funding announced as part of budget 2024 will
00:09:51.800
allow us to further reduce wait times for albertans and increase the number of patients
00:09:55.880
accessing surgical care within clinically recommended wait times we plan to increase
00:10:00.200
the number of surgical procedures performed each year and invest in capital projects that will
00:10:04.280
help us to do that including new operating rooms and expanded medical device reprocessing spaces
00:10:09.800
my colleague Janie will speak to a few of those projects on the way here in Edmonton shortly
00:10:15.080
we'll also continue to work on provincial referral pathways so that referring providers know what
00:10:19.720
information labs and diagnostics are required when making a specialist referral this helps
00:10:25.080
triage patients as quickly as possible we're implementing the use of day surgery techniques
00:10:29.800
to minimize the use of inpatient beds and to reduce length of stays and we're also improving
00:10:34.440
the efficiency and use of existing operating rooms including building new infrastructure
00:10:38.440
and optimizing existing or space we'll also be optimizing surgical activity at our rural sites
00:10:44.040
and expanding the use of chartered surgical facilities which are independent accredited
00:10:48.360
surgical facilities to support our increased surgical activity progress is happening and
00:10:53.320
i'm pleased to see the continue continued support from the government to help support this work
00:10:58.200
I'd now like to invite Janie Klink, Senior Operating Officer for the Royal Alexander
00:11:01.720
Hospital, the Lois Hall Hospital for Women and Sturgeon Community Hospital to speak. Janie.
00:11:13.400
Thank you, Sean. Good afternoon. I'm pleased to be here today to share with you some of our work
00:11:18.840
on reducing surgical wait times in the Edmonton Zone and the benefit it's bringing to our patients
00:11:24.680
and to our hospitals. Thanks to ongoing investments into ASI by the Alberta government,
00:11:30.840
we are upgrading and adding operating rooms in our hospitals, which means increased access for
00:11:36.440
patients and increased surgical volumes. New operating rooms have been added at the University
00:11:42.360
of Alberta Hospital and the Loisall Hospital for Women. Planning is underway for additional
00:11:48.200
operating rooms at the Mazinkowski Alberta Heart Institute, the Sturgeon Community Hospital,
00:11:53.960
and the cross cancer institute these new ors will support general surgery orthopedics
00:12:01.160
obstetrics and gynecology urology and cardiology we are also investing in upgrades to the day
00:12:07.480
surgery department at the fort saskatchewan hospital which will support procedures for
00:12:11.960
gynecology and ophthalmology and we're expanding as you heard our medical device reprocessing areas
00:12:19.400
in many of our hospitals so that the teams can support the increased surgical volumes
00:12:24.680
the throughput and the demand for sterile medical instrumentation we are planning for renovations
00:12:30.360
to mdrs at the royal alexander hospital the sturgeon community hospital and the university
00:12:35.400
of alberta hospital these investments will allow our mdr teams to service more operating rooms
00:12:41.880
keep up with increases to surgical volumes and provide the highest standard of practice when
00:12:47.400
it comes to medical device reprocessing since asi was introduced it's allowed us to open new
00:12:54.040
operating rooms create and expand procedure rooms upgrade and purchase medical equipment
00:13:00.600
which allows us to increase surgical activity and capacity in the edmonton zone
00:13:05.320
hire additional and very necessary workforce to support the increase in surgical activity
00:13:10.440
and so much more we've also invested in initiatives to support those that are waiting for surgeries
00:13:16.920
Rapid access clinic in Edmonton for orthopedic patients that are presenting with conditions
00:13:22.760
hip knee and shoulder conditions the specialized clinic is going to offer a point of access for
00:13:29.880
referring providers from primary care it's going to allow for timely screening and assessments
00:13:36.360
referrals to orthopedic surgeons as required and for those patients where surgeries are not
00:13:42.280
indicated just yet it will provide assessments and screening and options and treatment plans
00:13:49.000
which will include exercises referrals and education as patients are waiting or going
00:13:55.480
through their their non-surgical journeys for patients the initiatives underway and across the
00:14:02.280
province as a result of asi a great value add our partners in covenant health who are part of our
00:14:10.760
our surgical programs have also got site projects and initiatives underway supporting asi and
00:14:17.400
surgical care for patients in the edmonton area i'm very grateful for the ongoing work and support
00:14:22.840
for asi and i look forward to working collaboratively with our healthcare partners
00:14:27.800
and our ultimate goal of ensuring that albertans are receiving their surgeries within clinically
00:14:33.960
appropriate wait times and increasing access and care for all albertans thank you
00:14:42.120
all right thanks guys um with that we will turn it over to questions i'm not sure that you can
00:14:46.360
hear me but um just a note as i said previously we do have until 1 10 to get the ministers up to
00:14:52.520
question period um and we'll start with questions in the room and um just to keep things rolling
00:14:58.280
timely we'll stick to one question one follow-up go over to the phones and then come back to the
00:15:02.040
room for additional questions if we have time so please raise your hand if you would like to ask
00:15:06.440
a question and with that go ahead sure yeah for the minister um i'm hearing from some doctors who
00:15:13.080
say the workforce really has been decimated that they haven't worked a shift in the last three
00:15:16.600
months where they haven't been short-staffed of this i see the 305 million going towards these
00:15:21.720
310 000 surgeries this year how confident are you that we actually have the staff to be able to
00:15:25.800
perform those surgeries and if not what's being done to recruit them well we're already at um as
00:15:31.080
sean indicated uh 305 000 for this year this would be adding an additional 5 000 on top of that
00:15:37.960
my understanding is that we do have the staff in place obviously there are certain aspects
00:15:43.320
of staffing of the workforce that are more challenging than others particularly pardon me
00:15:49.000
particularly around anesthesia and so ahs has been working diligently to recruit more anesthesiologists
00:15:57.480
across the province and uh there's additional work being done in that area
00:16:02.760
sean i'm not sure if you'd like to add anything to this conversation
00:16:08.280
thanks i just say that uh you know workforce is always something that we're concerned about
00:16:13.080
and uh but we continue to work hard at recruitment and uh and retention it's important that we keep
00:16:19.640
the people that we have as well as recruit new people so a major focus of ours is on uh
00:16:25.240
Canadian and international recruitment and some focused efforts to see if we can actually
00:16:31.280
ensure that we have the right workforce in place to support the work.
00:16:34.400
We're starting to see some gains, but there's still some work to be done.
00:16:37.820
Just as a follow-up, looking closer at the budget, it looks like 45 million of the
00:16:44.580
So I know there was some information provided by Ms. Klink in regards to what's been done
00:16:48.740
I think in previous years, but just looking for some clarification of that 45 million
00:16:55.000
um i'll turn that back over to um jamie if you have those numbers otherwise we can get the
00:17:02.760
the detail breakdown for where it's going in edmonton thank you yeah thanks mr lagrange i
00:17:10.600
think you know we can get the detail numbers i think we've got 18 projects actually um planned
00:17:16.120
for 2024 in the edmonton zone alone and that's just a portion of the projects in the in the
00:17:22.760
province um some of them have been continued or i mean have been started and are continuing into
00:17:28.520
this next fiscal year and a lot of them actually are planned and and new but i think it's 18 we
00:17:33.320
can get you the numbers yes so um there's obviously there's infrastructure led and then there is
00:17:43.160
those that are led by ahs um in edmonton uh gray nuns is recording royal alec uh walter mckenzie
00:17:53.800
and u of a are projects that uh that are being done through infrastructure and then um through ahs
00:18:03.560
royal alec has uh has a couple of them going um the lowest hole that we've already discussed
00:18:11.080
So yeah, Royal Alec has another, Cross Cancer, and Mazinkowski, as well as U of A.
00:18:24.520
So you said that there's going to be about what you've committed to performing 310,000 surgical procedures this year.
00:18:31.580
What type of surgeries do you anticipate most of those being?
00:18:34.240
well they run the full gamut of surgeries um you know from minor to more complex surgeries
00:18:41.500
um what we are seeing is that that we're able to utilize the chartered surgical facilities
00:18:48.540
they're they're doing approximately 60 000 surgeries a year they alleviate the stress
00:18:56.020
on our hospitals so that they can do the more complex surgeries so it's everything but again
00:19:03.340
we're wanting to make sure that they're done within clinically approved timelines and going
00:19:08.380
from uh pre-pandemic i believe we were at about 40 percent within clinically approved timelines now
00:19:14.240
we're over 60 we want to see that number go even higher i'd love to see 100 okay with uh with that
00:19:21.180
being said um you said many of the surgeries will be taking place at chartered surgical facilities
00:19:25.660
um where do you stand well chartered surgical facilities are doing approximately 60 000 the
00:19:31.500
remainder of that uh 305 000 that currently are being done this year are at all of our hospitals
00:19:37.580
across the province and again we want to utilize those smaller uh hospital settings and that's why
00:19:42.500
we we are investing in capital infrastructure right across the whole province i was going to
00:19:47.180
ask uh where do you stand on expanding the chartered surgical facilities further well they have a place
00:19:51.800
uh very much um you know if you think of a chartered surgical facility facility very much like
00:19:56.880
a doctor's clinic they they put up their own capital they build their own facility
00:20:01.840
and then we pay them for the work that they do it's all publicly funded work that they do
00:20:08.480
there is a place for them because again they allow for that expansion of of capacity across
00:20:13.680
the province so they have a role to play and as i indicated earlier they do alleviate the stress
00:20:19.920
on our our hospitals so that they can do those more complex surgeries where you need you know
00:20:25.280
more complex teams around uh to support the physician the surgeon thank you yeah the surgical
00:20:32.960
uh wait time dashboard it looks like in the past few years the wait times have been in that um
00:20:41.760
40 to 60 percent range for out of out of scope the last few years when do you hope to see that
00:20:49.760
as you say 100 percent or 90 percent when you actually hope to see some real movement well as
00:20:55.760
soon as possible we're certainly striving we're taking that multi-pronged approach by everything
00:21:00.400
that you've heard here today um but again i i have said this before i'd rather um under promise and
00:21:07.120
over deliver um you know i don't want to put a timeline on it we will work to to get everyone
00:21:13.680
to that hundred percent within clinically approved timelines but right now we still have backlogs to
00:21:20.160
deal with and i can't anticipate what other issues may come up as we go and i'm wondering um for these
00:21:27.840
clinics do we have any data on how often patients are then referred to acute care centers for
00:21:35.840
complications such as infections well all of those would be tracked i i'm not aware
00:21:42.480
of any huge numbers. I'm not sure if you have any of those.
00:21:46.880
Yeah, I wouldn't have the data available, but it is something that we track as part of our agreement
00:21:58.160
All right, excellent. Operator, is there anyone on the line?
00:22:05.760
Perfect. Okay, so we'll do one more pass through the room if anyone has any additional questions to ask.
00:22:09.600
all right perfect then we will wrap thanks guys thank you thanks everyone