You come first
Refocusing the health care system will put you first in every health care decision and give experts the right space to ensure you are getting the world-class health care you need and deserve.
Where or how you access your health services will not change.
- For a health emergency, surgery or treatment for a serious illness – patients will still go to a hospital or acute care facility
- Checkups and help with a general health concern – patients will still go to a family doctor, walk-in clinic or other primary care provider
- Patients with mental health or addiction concerns will still access usual treatment services and can call AHS helplines or 2-1-1 to get connected with resources
- Albertans who require assisted living will still get the care they need in continuing care homes or assistance from home care
Primary Care
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Continuing Care
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Acute Care
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Mental Health and Addiction
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Get involved
We’re creating 12 Regional Advisory Councils and an Indigenous Advisory Council, which will provide a way for you to share your perspectives on how to improve health care in your community.
Council members will explore potential solutions to local challenges and look for opportunities to better support local decision-making.
I want to know what's going to happen to:
Primary care
Primary health care includes all the services you access to support your day-to-day health needs through every stage of life.
The role of the Primary Care organization within the refocused single provincial health care system is to coordinate primary health care services and provide transparent provincial oversight.
The Primary Care organization will focus on achieving key outcomes including:
- ensuring every Albertan will be attached to a family physician or a nurse practitioner
- providing timely access to high quality primary care services, including after-hours no matter where they live
- supporting an integrated team of health professionals to provide comprehensive primary care, including family physicians, nurse practitioners and pharmacists, that has appropriate access to patient health information
The organization's work will complement the immediate actions announced through MAPS to stabilize and improve primary health care access across the province and to support family physicians.
The Alberta Continuing Care Association applauds the recent healthcare reforms by the Alberta government and its commitment to advancing healthcare services for seniors.”
Continuing care
Alberta’s continuing care system provides you with the health, personal care and accommodation services you need to support your independence and quality of life.
The new Continuing Care organization will provide provincial oversight and coordination of continuing care service delivery. This will renew patient focus and create equitable, consistent and timely access to continuing care services. All operators, including Covenant Health, will continue to deliver services under contract with the new organization.
The Continuing Care organization will ensure:
- equitable, consistent and timely access to continuing care services
- increased number of beds to meet the needs of Albertans with a focus on equitable access across the province
- improved team-based cross-sector care leveraging other health and social services
The organization will continue the work to add more continuing care spaces, attract and retain health care workers, advance innovative solutions and support you as you choose where and how you'd like to live.
This is an exciting time for Alberta’s healthcare sector. I am pleased that continuing care remains a significant emphasis for the future and that Indigenous health will be an ongoing part of this conversation.”
Many organizational members of Christian Health Association of Alberta (CHAA) have been proudly managing continuing care services in Alberta for 100 years or more. We’ll continue to work with our system partners, Alberta Health, and Alberta Health Services to pave the way for an enhanced high quality, sustainable care system.”
Acute care
Acute health care is there for you during times of an emergency or serious illness or injury, and includes hospitals, urgent care centres, emergency rooms, surgeries, cancer care, laboratory services, clinical operations and Emergency Medical Services (EMS).
Right now, wait times at emergency departments are too long, surgeries need to be scheduled sooner and EMS response times are not where they need to be. The new Acute Care organization will work directly with service providers, including AHS, Covenant Health and contracted EMS providers, to speed up access to high quality care, reduce wait times and make sure the patient’s journey through the acute care system is efficient and effective across the province.
The new Acute Care organization will ensure:
- shorter wait-times at emergency departments and for surgeries
- faster EMS response time
- higher quality care across the province and enhanced access to care in rural areas
This re-visioning allows for opportunities to tackle current issues and create system enhancements in the delivery of services for Albertan’s including those improvements linked directly to the profession of paramedics."
These steps from Alberta’s government create an opportunity to build on the strong foundation of existing mental health and addiction services and the exemplary work of our staff and clinicians.”
Mental health and addiction
Mental health and addiction care provides recovery-oriented services that span prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery supports in both in-patient and out-patient settings for children and adults.
Recovery Alberta
On April 2, we announced the new Mental Health and Addiction organization – Recovery Alberta.
Recovery Alberta will deliver the mental health and addiction services currently delivered by Alberta Health Services (AHS) and will focus on:
- supporting every Albertan struggling with the disease of addiction and/or mental health challenges is supported in their pursuit of recovery
- ensuring Albertans can access a full continuum of recovery-oriented supports that help them improve their overall wellbeing and sustain recovery
- improving mental health and addiction care for Albertans by further expanding access to treatment and recovery supports across Alberta
Recovery Alberta should be fully operational by summer 2024, with an approximate annual budget of $1.13 billion. This funding currently supports the delivery of mental health and addiction services through AHS. Recovery Alberta will report to the Ministry of Mental Health and Addiction.
Visit Shape the way to listen to an upcoming telephone town hall where Minister Dan Williams will answer questions about Recovery Alberta.
Canadian Centre of Recovery Excellence (CoRE)
We are also establishing the Canadian Centre of Recovery Excellence (CoRE) to improve mental health and addiction services in the province and develop best practices for use in Alberta and across the country.
CoRE will support the development of this comprehensive system of care by creating connections with experts around the world, conducting research and evaluating Alberta government services.
We committed $5 million through Budget 2024 to support the establishment of CoRE. It is anticipated that CoRE will be operational by summer 2024.
To see a government this focused on recovery brings so much hope to those working at Oxford House and the individuals in treatment. I’m proud to support the government in their work to strengthen addiction services around the province.”
Health care for Indigenous communities
As a First Nations, Métis or Inuit person, you often face many barriers to access appropriate health care. To support better health outcomes, we are building more meaningful connections to identify improvements that reflect the unique nature of your communities.
As part of the health care refocus, we are creating an Indigenous Advisory Council to ensure your needs and voices are heard. This council will feature representatives from First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities in Alberta.
The Indigenous Advisory Council will join 12 regional advisory councils to represent the different perspectives of Albertans and Indigenous communities. The councils will advise the new Primary Care, Continuing Care, Acute Care and Mental Health and Addiction organizations on local priorities and planning, and propose initiatives and innovative solutions for their region.
Together with the actions being taken under the MAPS initiative, which includes investments and initiatives designed and delivered by Indigenous communities, creating an Indigenous Patient Complaints Investigator and an Indigenous Health Division within Alberta Health, we're committed to improving access to timely, appropriate health care services.
Learn more about what is being done to improve Indigenous health care and programs to support Indigenous health care needs.
Rural health care
People living in rural and remote areas need unique solutions to challenges such as access to primary care, specialists and specialized services.
We will listen to Albertans in their communities and work together with municipalities, doctors, nurses and allied health providers to identify strategies and develop solutions to these challenges.
Recently, Alberta Health created a new branch dedicated to prioritizing the health needs of rural and remote communities. We will continue to talk about our plans and engage with Albertans as we pave the path forward to improve health care delivery in a refocused health system.
You deserve access to the right care when and where you need it.