CALGARY – Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley is unveiling a major commitment to rebuild and strengthen family healthcare in Alberta, a critical step in ending the chaos in hospitals and ambulances caused by the UCP.
“Our vision for primary care is called Family Health Teams,” Notley said. “Our goal is for one million more Albertans to be able to see their family doctor and a Family Health Team within a day or two, close to home.”
Family Health Teams can include multiple family doctors as well as Nurse Practitioners, Registered and Licensed Practical Nurses, mental health therapists, pharmacists, social workers, dietitians, community paramedics, community health navigators, physiotherapists, midwives, speech language therapists, and others.
“When you walk into a Family Health Clinic you will have immediate access to a range of primary care professionals who can help you respond to a problem, manage a chronic condition and generally support you in maintaining good physical and mental health,” Notley said.
“This means less waiting, less running around to referrals, and less repeating of your story to one new person after another. Family Health Teams mean one location to get your family health concerns looked after.”
Dr. Alana Luft and Dr. Tomi Mitchell joined Notley to launch the plan.
“I am glad that Rachel Notley and the Alberta NDP have set out a vision to transform primary care where family doctors and other team members can provide better support to patients for early treatment and preventative care,” said Dr. Luft. “If patients have access to accurate information, timely screening, regular check-ins with a provider who knows them, then we have a better chance of keeping people healthy and addressing issues early.
“If we are able to optimize wellness, and reduce incidence of severe disease in the primary care setting, there will be far less stress on hospitals and ERs, where the costs to the individuals and the system are much higher.”
“As a team, we can provide comprehensive, community based, holistic care that promotes the prevention of disease and the optimization of health outcomes,” said Dr. Mitchell. “We are faced with challenges, but within these challenges lies opportunities. The path forward is actually quite simple: Proactively support the science-based research that patients do best under a team-based healthcare system. And invest now, in the public health system, and the long term positive impacts will be felt for generations.”
The Alberta NDP plan calls for a transition fund to immediately begin hiring 1,500 non-physician team members into existing clinics, while work proceeds to open 10 Family Health Clinics across the province.
All Family Health Teams will have integrated mental health professionals, supported by the Alberta NDP’s long-standing commitment to insure five sessions for every Albertan under the provincial insurance plan.
The development of Family Health Teams goes hand-in-hand with the Alberta NDP plan to launch the largest healthcare recruitment campaign Alberta has ever seen.
“Today we lay out the initial building blocks of what we intend to be the largest and most ambitious healthcare recruitment campaign Alberta has ever seen,” Notley said. “Part of our offer to professionals will be stable and rewarding workplaces where you can focus on providing healthcare and spend less time on paperwork and administration.
“Family Health Teams will make every single part of Alberta healthcare a better place to work by helping patients sooner and taking the pressure off of our hospitals and ambulances.”
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