The Alberta Legislature will be back in session on February 25 and MLA for Drumheller-Stettler, Nate Horner, says one main focus is going to be healthcare.
Earlier this month the results of a review on Alberta’s healthcare completed by Ernst and Young was released. It spelled out a number of recommendations on healthcare, some of which are already causing concerns by Albertans and professionals in the healthcare field. Horner says this will be the main focus of the upcoming sitting.
“If you have seen our campaign platform, probably it is going to be a big session on Health,” Horner tells the Mail.
“The AHS review is complete and it is in the hands of the minister, so I think it is going to be a health-related session. It will be tough I’m sure but at 43 per cent of the budget, it can’t be ignored. We can do better.”
He says in many cases there are different issues facing urban and rural health care.
“Even with the doctor’s negotiations, what the ministry is trying to fix, I would call urban problems. We are definitely keeping communications up, us rural MLAs, saying ‘don’t paint this with all one brush, these are urban problems,’ and he has been pretty responsive to that.”
One area of concern for rural health he is hearing has to do with ambulance services.
“You hear the same story everywhere, trying to find a way to move people around in non-emergency situations,” he said. “If we could use these NAT (non-emergency transport) vans for non-emergency calls. These have been done in a few other areas quite well,”
Horner adds they are working on this in the region, and they have the research to back up that using NAT vans would improve the services and bring savings.
Horner says Alberta simply needs to get its debt under control.
“This will be our worst year with $8.7 billion added to the debt, it is going to get better, but we are needing to draw the line in the sand right now,” said Horner.
He is optimistic, however.
“The Premier calls this the turnaround year. Last year we saw very modest growth in the economy and we are expecting better than last year but maybe just slightly. But most economists agree if we can get one year out, things are looking better for Alberta,” said Horner.
