Government needs to implement new deal with physicians now

Family doctors are no strangers to Albertans — oh wait, they kind of are. Roughly 800,000 Albertans don’t have a primary care physician, which presents a real problem for health care. Yet for all the Government of Alberta’s efforts to fix the health-care system, it doesn’t seem to be prioritizing the new compensation model for doctors.

The Alberta Medical Association (AMA), which represents physicians, residents, and medical students in Alberta, was expecting a new compensation model for primary care physicians. Much of this new model would actually directly go to helping physicians keep their clinics open, Dr. Paul Parks, president of the AMA said. But, the province has been slow to actually finalize and implement it.

Physicians should be able to depend on the government to follow through on its promises. Especially when Albertans’ health care hangs in the balance. Right now, the Alberta government just looks like a bad partner. 

Late October 2023, AMA and the provincial government signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that the two would work together to stabilize and improve primary care. Within that was an agreement that there would be a new compensation model. Dr. Parks said that they submitted AMA’s proposal late last year. 

In April, Minister of Health, Adriana LaGrange said the government would implement the new model this fall. News flash: it’s fall.

Physicians need to know how they will be compensated. The province needs to give physicians some stability in their profession. Something as major as a compensation model shouldn’t be up in the air after a year. 

If the government wants to attract more physicians to Alberta — which it needs to do — it can’t drag its feet. No one is going to want to come establish their practice here if they don’t know how they will be compensated for it. Instead, nearly half of physicians plan to leave Alberta within the next five years due to uncertainty around health care in Alberta.

Of course, this is all happening in the midst of Premier Danielle Smith and LaGrange’s restructuring of Alberta Health Services (AHS). Part of their argument for this restructuring is making sure people get care where and when they need it. For example, being able to go to a family doctor rather than filling up the emergency rooms in hospitals. 

But maybe before LaGrange dove into an enormous undertaking few medical professionals asked for, she should have delivered on her other promises. Especially for very basic things like compensation models for primary care doctors so they might stay in the province. Breaking up AHS won’t fix health care if the government isn’t doing the bare minimum for physicians. 

LaGrange is optimistic that allowing nurse practitioners to open their own practice will help get more people primary care. The Nurse Practitioner Association of Alberta (NPAA) said it has nurses ready to go when the infrastructure is in place. Is this the kind of infrastructure that LaGrange can’t get in place for current primary care professionals? Even if there are thousands of nurse practitioners ready to open clinics, why would they open clinics in Alberta? It seems like LaGrange and Smith are more committed to overhauling health care than stabilizing anything. 

Instead of huge — and likely disastrous — aspirations to restructure AHS, the government should be focusing on the basics. Which includes a fair and stable compensation model for physicians. Without it, physicians are left stranded and so are Albertans with or without family doctors.