Alberta rolls out new primary care agency
Alberta now has a new provincial health agency to help residents access primary care services, Health Minister Adriana LaGrange announced on Tuesday.
The organization, called Primary Care Alberta, will be "a modern, more responsive and unified health-care system," officials said.
"What this means for Albertans is they will finally have an agency that is dedicated to making sure their primary health-care needs are met," LaGrange said.
- Sign up for breaking news alerts from CTV News, right at your fingertips
- The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App
Primary Care Alberta is one of four agencies created by the UCP government to manage the province's health-care system and take over for Alberta Health Services (AHS).
The other agencies include acute care, continuing care and mental health and addiction.
LaGrange said the decision to create the agency came from its Modernizing Alberta's Primary Care System initiative, which showed that Alberta needs oversight for primary care.
"To have the ability to have oversight for primary care is essential to moving things forward," she said.
Dr. Kim Simmonds, the current assistant deputy minister of strategic planning and performance at Alberta Health, has been appointed the CEO of the new organization.
"She has experience working with clinicians and understands the need for data and evidence-based decision making when delivering health care to Albertans no matter where they live," LaGrange said.
Simmonds said she is excited about opportunity and the government's focus on improving health care for Albertans.
"Primary care is the foundation of a solid health-care system," she said. "It is the first point of contact that Albertans have when they need health care."
One of Simmonds' responsibilities as CEO will be make sure "the right resources" are in place to achieve the government's goals.
"Really focused on making sure that we have access across the whole province," LaGrange said.
Simmonds' work will still be supported by the "multi-pronged approach" to address some of the other issues facing Alberta's health-care system, such as a recruitment drive for more physicians.
"Over 280 family practitioners have moved or are in the process of moving to Alberta that have registered with the College of Physicians and Surgeons just in the last year alone," LaGrange said.
She said it would be "premature" to say if any job losses would occur in the change over from the existing AHS framework for primary care to this new agency.
"Dr. Simmonds has a lot of work ahead of her to set up the agency and make sure she's connected to the primary care networks, with the primary care clinics that are operating across the province, there's just a lot of work ahead of her."
Province exploring homeopathic treatment coverage
As Alberta continues to revamp its health-care system, the provincial government is again discussing whether homeopathy and other alternative medicine should be covered.
"I know that a lot of Albertans value the services that they get from homeopaths, but there needs to be a lot more discussion," said LaGrange about whether the government could cover alternative treatments.
"It's up to Minister LaGrange to do a full assessment of what our system covers," said Premier Danielle Smith when asked Tuesday.
"We want to be able to make sure that we're covering the same levels of care that are happening in other provinces. So that work is ongoing," she added.
Timothy Caulfield, a professor of health law and science at the University of Alberta, is critical of the province even considering spending public money on homeopathy.
"It is incredibly frustrating that in this time of crisis with our health-care system, that they're wasting even a second of time to consider the provision and the funding of homeopathy," Caulfield said.
"We're not going to fix the grave problems we have with our health care system with pseudoscience and magical thinking."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'Canada will be absolutely fine': Justin Trudeau, his ministers and Pierre Poilievre congratulate Donald Trump
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and members of his cabinet congratulated Donald Trump Wednesday morning on his second United States presidential election win, amid questions about how the federal government intends to navigate a second term.
What Donald Trump's election victory could mean for Canada
Following president-elect Donald Trump's decisive election victory, there are sure to be significant knock-on effects for Canada. Here's a look at the different areas in which a second Trump presidency may affect Canadians.
Kamala Harris concedes: Here's what she said in her speech
Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris has conceded the U.S. election to Republican Donald Trump.
Who won the popular vote? U.S. election vote totals from the past 40 years
Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency on Tuesday, and as of Wednesday morning, was also ahead in the popular vote. Historically, though, the candidate with the most votes hasn’t always won the contest.
Canada orders wind up of TikTok's Canadian business, app access to continue
Canada ordered the dissolution of TikTok's Canadian business after a national security review of the Chinese company behind the social media platform.
Newfoundland hockey player suspended, banned from local arena after off-ice fight with fan
A combination of a thrown stick and thrown punches have given a senior hockey player in Newfoundland a three-game suspension and an indefinite ban from one of his league's six arenas.
Sleepy during the day? You may be at higher risk for a pre-dementia syndrome, study finds
If you find yourself sleepy during your daily activities in your older age, you may need to consider it more than an inconvenience — since the fatigue may indicate you’re at higher risk for developing a condition that can lead to dementia, a new study has found.
4 ways in which Donald Trump's election was historic
Donald Trump's election victory was history-making in several respects, even as his defeat of U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris prevented other firsts. She would have been the nation's first Black and South Asian woman to be president.
Kingston, Ont. doctor fighting OHIP clawback of $660K in pandemic vaccination payments
A Kingston doctor is in a dispute with the Ontario Ministry of Health, which is trying to clawback more than $600,000 in OHIP payments.