EDMONTON, AB: A new report from the Fraser Institute released this week shows Alberta’s wait times for key procedures continue to balloon, leaving patients lagging in dangerous situations, Wildrose Shadow Health Minister Drew Barnes said.
Alberta now has the second worst wait times among all non-maritime provinces, with median wait times now over five months across all procedures. Alberta’s wait times are now three weeks more than the national average.
“The NDP is more interested in wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on government-run laundry services than actually improving the health care system for Albertans,” Barnes said. “Just spending more money doesn’t fix the problem; it requires innovation and a vision to actually fix the problem.”
The report also found that wait times for specialist treatment has increased by 15 per cent and wait times between specialist and treatment are the second longest in Alberta’s history since the survey began.
Wildrose believes in strengthening Alberta’s universal public health care system through developing an aggressive wait times reduction strategy, focusing funding on patient care, reducing wasteful spending, decentralizing decision making and improving choice for patients.
“These are more than just statistics, these are individuals and family members who are living in pain, frustrated at not knowing when they will receive treatment,” Barnes said. “We can do better.”