While the province is doing some changes to the health care system, there are still concerns on health care that people are wanting to see addressed.
Several Peace Region communities have been dealing with doctor shortages, but Health Minister Adriana LaGrange says there are a number of things her department is doing for that.
“There are some long term things that we’re doing in terms of making sure that we are working with our post-secondaries. We will be announcing something very soon, I know I’ve budgeted for it. I think people have heard about having some rural focused training in Lethbridge and Grande Prairie. When that is fully functional, that will actually produce 100 rurally focused physicians.”
LaGrange says they’ve been able to attract more physicians and nurses to the province and they’re also looking to increase the number of health care aides as well.
The past several weeks has seen the province doing a number of engagement sessions on their restructuring of the health care system.
LaGrange says one of the common themes coming from these sessions has been the need for more opportunities for local decision-making.
“We definitely will have the regional advisory councils, but beyond them we want to make sure that those advisory councils will reach down to the community and so we’re going to put instructions in place that will mandate them to reach into the communities. We’re going to continue having these sessions, they’re been invaluable.”
Some other common themes from the session according to LaGrange are on the need for more health care workers and strong system integration to make patient experiences seamless.
We asked a couple of questions to Minister LaGrange during a press conference the other day, you can find that video below.
– Kyle Moore, Trending 55 Newsroom
