Questions & Answers with Don Sieben
1. How is this budget different from last year’s budget?
Alberta Health Services is in a very different position this fiscal year than it was one year ago. We now have a stable five-year funding agreement with the province and no accumulated deficit. That means that we can plan long term and accelerate improvement in target areas while living within our means.
2. Is there a specific focus in this year’s budget plan?
The budget focuses on two priority areas: expanding continuing care choices and reducing emergency department wait times.
Choice and Quality for Seniors:
- We are going to improve choice and quality of care for seniors. This year, more than 1,100 beds are being added across Alberta. As we announced last week for example, the total includes 200 continuing care beds at Carewest Garrison Green in Calgary and 38 designated assisted living suites at the Place Beauséjour site in Beaumont. Capacity is being added in communities across the province (see backgrounder).
- Alberta Health Services, working with the Government of Alberta, will add more than 3,000 continuing care beds over the next three years across the province as part of a strategy to increase access and care choices for seniors. These spaces are in addition to the more than 19,500 continuing care spaces currently in Alberta.
Essentially, we will add at least 1,000 beds a year for the next three years.
Reducing emergency wait times with achievable targets and actions:
- We are targeting length of stay for emergency department visits that require hospital admission, as well as emergency department visits for patients who can be treated and released through a range of initiatives.
- There are about 700 Albertans waiting in acute care or sub-acute care settings for a long-term care or supportive living space. Adding more than 3,000 continuing care beds over the next three years will significantly reduce the number of people waiting for placement and the length of time they have to wait.
- As people move into more appropriate facilities, more hospital beds become available, resulting in shorter emergency department wait times as patients move through the system faster.
- For example, Calgary’s Rockyview General Hospital opened a new 46 bed emergency department with an additional 12 bed medical assessment unit. Patients waiting for an inpatient bed are transferred to this unit, where physicians and nurses initiate consultations, treatment and diagnostics. A second, 15-bed medical assessment unit is expected to open Fall 2010 at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton. Patients typically stay in a medical assessment unit between 24 and 48 hours.
3. Will you launch further “blitzes” on wait times for cataract, hip and knee and other surgeries?
The blitzes earlier this year enabled us to immediately ramp-up the number of surgeries. Going forward, we are planning for a sustained increase in the number of surgical procedures. That said, there are additional near-term blitzes planned to target specific wait lists for high-demand surgeries. For example, this includes plans for a second blitz focused on cataract surgeries.
4. Does this budget allow you to improve service without ending up in a deficit position? If so, how will you do that?
The provincial government has provided funding for AHS’ prior-year operating deficits and stable, predictable funding for the coming five years - which has created an entirely different context for AHS from the one that existed in 2009/10.
The focus this year will be to stabilize operations, target additional savings and enact specific service improvements, such as Emergency Department wait times and continuing care.
5. Overall, what does this budget mean for Alberta Health Services?
I think the more important question is: what does this budget mean for Albertans? And what it means is that we are setting clear and achievable targets that reflect increased access to emergency care and seniors living options. We’re putting into action the initiatives that will propel us towards our objective of building the best-performing publicly funded health system in the country.
