Alberta Health gives approval for Airdrie proposal being criticized as privatization

Alberta Health has officially given its seal of approval for the new One Health initiative set to be constructed in Airdrie.

In an email released to Airdrie representatives last week the Ministry confirmed:

“Alberta’s government recognizes there is a need to increase acute care and primary care services in Airdrie to ensure Albertans can access the care they need close to home. To support the health needs in Airdrie, Alberta Health has approved a proposal by One Health Airdrie for an additional and separate health care facility in the community.The facility will be required to operate using a joint leadership model in which One Health Airdrie is the primary care operator, operating within Alberta’s approved physician compensation parameters.”

The Ministry went on to add:

“Additionally, urgent care operations will need to be provided by a proponent selected through a competitive process to ensure they align with the refocused health care system. The government will work with One Health Airdrie to develop a funding agreement to ensure strong accountability around team-based service delivery.”

The Ministry said government funding for this project will be considered in the Budget 2025 capital submission.

Dr. Julian Kyne, director of One Health Airdrie, said the announcement came without warning, but was also not exactly a surprise.

“I'm absolutely thrilled,” Kyne told the Airdrie City View earlier this week. “I was kind of floating around for the first week after I got the news, because this is our third try at getting some significant changes to delivery of health care in Airdrie.

“We now move into a different phase, which is basically training up staff in terms of developing team based care on the primary care side of things, and then looking to make the changes here in our current facility so that we can then have it all worked out by the time we move into the new facility.”

Kyne said the new One Health facility in Airdrie will have an urgent care component, but he expected the newly renovated current Urgent Care Centre to remain operational and working in tandem with One Health.

“The current urgent care, as you know, is undergoing renovations over this next year and a half," he explained. “It will continue to operate, from what I understand. But we will have this additional brand new urgent care facility (One Health) in the next few years here.

“Where the facility is going to be, there will be a brand new urgent care with radiology suite and CT scan, and lab, and pharmacy on the main floor, and then primary care on the upper two floors.”

Questions About Management

When Alberta Health made its decision on One Health known to the public last week, one of its key points seemed to suggest One Health’s urgent care centre might not be operated by Alberta Health Services when constructed.

“Additionally, urgent care operations will need to be provided by a proponent selected through a competitive process to ensure they align with the refocused healthcare system,” it stated.

Kyne said he was unclear what the full intent of the statement was, and he had had no supplemental explanations from Alberta Health since the initial announcement last week.

“I don't know myself,” he admitted. “I do have to have the conversation with Alberta Health as well, to sort of see what that looks like. What I am hoping for is that they're saying, ‘Look, we want to get a solid model for urgent care centre as well.’

"We've provided very detailed information on how the primary care side of things would operate, and also how primary care would interact with urgent care to help support the urgent care centre. But the actual nuts and bolts of the urgent care centre still need to be worked out. So I think what the government statement is saying is it's not necessarily going to be Alberta Health Services that would be running the urgent care centre.”

Friends of Medicare has been quick to criticize the One Health proposal in Airdrie, saying that it smacks of privatization in Alberta’s healthcare system.

The Airdrie City View did reach out to Health Minister’s office to get some further clarity on the statement, asking: Does this mean a choice between providers such as Covenant Health and AHS for example? Or does this mean urgent care will be run completely by a private healthcare provider in a for-profit setting chosen after a selective bidding process? Like private MRI or knee surgery clinics are run now?

Jessi Rampton, who serves as press secretary in the office of the Minister of Health, sent a reply which largely echoed what had previously been released. But Rampton did clarify increased privatization was not the intent of the statement.

“The approved proposal includes urgent care operations, which will be part of Alberta’s public health care system,” Rampton emphasized. “An operator for the urgent care portion of the facility will be selected through a competitive process, no decision has been made at this time."

Kyne agreed.

“This is not about private healthcare,” he reiterated. “I know Friends of Medicare and others got out saying all this smells of private healthcare, but I've worked hard here in Airdrie for the past 35 years, and it's certainly not to further private health care. It's to improve overall health care for Airdrie going forward.”

In an ideal world, Kyne said he expected the capital budget ask for the One Health facility would be approved by the provincial government in January with shovels in the ground to come shortly thereafter.