Government of Alberta hopes to speed up the line for Albertans waiting for surgery by introducing Bill 11, legislation that would allow some doctors to work in both public and private health care at the same time.
According to Alberta Surgical Initiative DashboardAs of September, about 83,000 Albertans are on the surgery waiting list.
This is approximately 4,000 more people than in September 2024 and approximately 6,900 more than in September 2023.
Of those included, about 43 percent waited longer than the recommended target time.
The ruling United Conservative Party introduced Bill 11 in late November.
Weeks later, experts remain divided over what the plan will do.
Nadeem Esmail, director of health policy at the Fraser Institute, says the province is taking a step in the right direction.
He says some surgeons are willing to work longer hours and receive extra pay and are waiting for access to surgical suites.
Allowing them to work in private settings will help the health care system by increasing resources.
“The idea that this will somehow drain the government's resource system misunderstands what's happening on the ground in Alberta today,” Esmail said.
Esmail says doctors have left Alberta in the past in search of more flexible work arrangements.
He believes Bill 11, a dual model system, would be an attractive idea for retired nurses and could attract unemployed doctors.
Esmail says the model will also promote competition and improve service quality.
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“Currently, public health care provides one unquestionable standard of care. There is no one in Alberta who can provide the best care. Patients who want care for themselves are forced to leave the province or leave the country,” Esmail said.
“Having the option at home motivates the public system to do a better job and care for public patients when there is a clear alternative doing a better job right next door.”
Esmail says this model will also benefit patients because they now have a choice.
“Allowing Albertans to purchase services that the public system is unwilling or unable to provide will give them an important opportunity to take care of themselves,” he said.
At the national level, Esmail said, other developed countries offer both a universal health care system and a private system.
2023 Commonwealth Fund Report showed that Canada has the highest number of people waiting two months to a year for the procedure. Esmail says that even though wait times for the dual model are long in some developed countries, they are shorter than wait lists in Canada.
But University of Calgary health economics professor Dr. Braden Manns says Europe has twice as many doctors per capita as Canada.
He says there aren't currently enough doctors in Alberta's public system, let alone to cover both.
“It's not a problem of a lack of operating rooms in Alberta. It's a problem of a lack of anesthesiologists and a lack of staff,” Manns said.
“We won't do more surgeries in the public system until we can hire more anesthesiologists, train more nurses who can work in operating rooms, and that will take years – and with the population growing, I don't think that will happen anytime soon.”
Manns says the more private expansion that occurs, the longer wait times will be in the public system.
He points to a recent study by Newcastle University in the United Kingdom that compared the prevalence of cataract surgery over a 20-year period in England and Scotland.
In England, for every one per cent expansion in the private sector, waiting times in the public system increase by two per cent.
Scotland has kept private facilities to a minimum, even buying a private hospital and transferring it to the public system. This move resulted in a reduction in waiting times.
Manns says it's unfair that only people who can afford health care can get it faster.
“Some patients wait two years for surgery, while a similar patient in the same city, who lives on the same street but sees a different surgeon, can have surgery in three months,” he said.
Manns adds that the dual model will be a burden for current employees.
However, Minister of Primary and Preventive Health Adriana Lagrange says this will not be a burden as the dual model is not mandatory.
“No one is being forced to do this. Obviously, it's voluntary. If you have the capacity and you want to do it, that's what will happen,” LaGrange told reporters.
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