Help! Our Healthcare System Needs CPR
- thrive360fit9
- Jun 5
- 6 min read
I would like to preface this article by being very clear that in absolutely no way is this an attack of any frontline workers. This is also not a reference towards any political party or symbol of affiliation. But rather a reflection of impotence at the systemic level. I would also like to state that I have worked in both public and private healthcare settings and acknowledge the benefits and challenges to both.
On A Personal Note
Recently someone close to me experienced a severe back pain episode that completely changed their day to day life.
After being off work for less than a week due to extreme back and leg pain, the patient went into severe pain episode and could not move or feel their legs. The pain in their back was so severe it lead to them going into shock and becoming acidotic. An ambulance had to be called as the patient could not move. The paramedics quickly administered morphine and got to work, expertly stabilizing blood markers and vital signs.
Upon arriving at the hospital it was clear the morphine was not touching the severity of pain. Nurses quickly administered opioid level pain medications to try to give the patient some relief.
After spending about 4 hours in the emergency room, the doctor came to inform the patient that they had an MRI scheduled for September 2028 and they could head home. Yeah you read that right, it’s 2026 and the nearest MRI availability is in 2028…
They left the hospital with a handful of prescriptions including opioids, anti-inflammatory medications and more. After spending nearly another week in bed they decided to go into a city center to see if they could get more guidance or see a surgeon. Here they received a more thorough assessment and another handful of prescriptions but again, no MRI availability until 2028 and perhaps a spinal clinic will contact you but you may not get in for a about a year.
Fast forward about a month of being essentially bed ridden and unable to do day to day tasks such as go to the bathroom alone, the patient was fortunate to have the means to pay and get in for an MRI the same week, at the same clinic they couldn’t get into until 2028. About a week after getting the MRI, the spinal clinic called with a cancellation the next day.
The spinal specialist comes in to check out the MRI and do an assessment and concludes it may get better on its own or it may not. You haven’t lost control of your bowels yet so let’s reassess in 4-6 months.
So long story short Alberta’s Healthcare System’s approach to life altering pain is a candy jar of highly addictive medications and wait and see what happens. Meanwhile, this early 50’s patient is unable to work, drive, sit, walk, sleep or even go to the bathroom alone.
After sending the imaging to other countries for assessment, they have all concluded that the state of nerve impingement is urgent and emergent and could cause long term deficits if not treated.
We know that this is not the only case of poor medical treatment and I would like to say I am so sorry for anyone that has to fight to receive adequate medical care. It’s not fair to you or your support system and it breaks my heart for you.
The Math Doesn’t Add Up
I have spent a lot of time combing through AHS’s budgets and financial documents and this is what I have found. Please note all of these numbers come from 2019-2025
-Out of the top 20 paid individuals in AHS, 1 is a Registered Nurse and none are physicians working in care settings.
-The top 20 paid in AHS combine to make about $15,477,028. That AVERAGES at 773,850 per year per person.
-The CEO alone made about $2,174,576 in 2023 (this includes compensation, severance, and other bonuses.)
-The AVERAGE Registered Nurse salary in Alberta is approximately $100,000 per year.
That means if the CEO alone took a very liveable wage of $200,000 per year, the remainder of their wage could be used to hire 20 Registered Nurses. And that is off of ONE person’s salary.
-These number do not include the multitude of assistants that each CEO has working for them
-In 2024-2025 the following costs were budgeted by AHS
Continuing Care (Long Term Care) about $1.425 million
Community Care about $2.132 million
Home Care about $930,000
Acute Care about $6.082 million
Emergency about $735,400
And other care requirements like administration, public health and education, diagnostic services, etc. All combine to expense at $19,144,028 with an additional $231 million earmarked for maintenance and replacement of clinical assets and $172 million earmarked for facility maintenance and upgrades. $1.5 billion goes to IT services and $2,714 million to support services such as housekeeping, utilities, snow removal, etc.
-This totals to $4.6 billion dollars to directly help patient care. But AHS receives a whopping $16 BILLION per year from various government programs. So maybe I’m reading this wrong but that is a lot of money going outside of patient care.
So forgive me for saying this, but I don’t think it is the amount of money AHS receives. I think it’s the misutilization of funds. Alberta is the second province overall in healthcare spending but is ranked 8th is access to care.
The New AHS Structure
But wait! We shouldn’t be too hard on them because there is a new plan coming out to help right?
AHS has divided itself into four pillars of healthcare: Acute Care, Primary Care, Assisted Living, and Recovery. So the resolution to long Emergency wait times, lack of staff and resources, and lack of care access is to hire 4 people to do a job that 1 person is currently doing. AND those jobs make extraordinary amounts of money from tax payer dollars?
Not only this, but they have taken a group of workers that work across all 4 platforms and made their jobs infinitely more difficult because they don’t belong to a single pillar. Physiotherapists, Recreational Therapists, Social Workers, Housekeepers and many more now have nowhere they truly belong, they have to manage all pillars separately yet seamlessly.
Solutions
Now, I’m not the type to complain about something without having thought through potential solutions and here is what I have come up with to start mending the crumbling infrastructure of our healthcare system.
Our post secondary education system needs help to focus on improving local students. International students pay triple what local students do for university so the universities have started to reserve seats for them rather than reserving seats for locals. Locals are 80% likely to stay in their home province following education while international students are 40% likely to stay working where they receive their education. If education is going to prioritize the lowest statistically probable group, then incentives need to be in place to keep these individuals in Alberta.
Not to mention both Calgary and Edmonton combined, only graduate 312 doctors per year while 560 leave Alberta annually. 2500-3000 Registered Nurses graduate locally each year and about 48% leaving the workforce in their first couple years of work. Class sizes need to increase in Alberta to ensure enough individuals are educated in our healthcare system. Job incentivization needs to improve, not only financially but supportively as well.
So, perhaps instead of paying a single individual over a million dollars, AHS needs to fund some tuition relief programs for healthcare professionals. They need to work with post secondary institutions more closely to help both structures in the province.
For example, our local community was in desperate need of both paramedics and health care aides in recent years. A learning facility was set up for them locally, and after only a couple years the number of local workers for both professions has increased significantly. Having access to education is key in healthcare occupations.
Now going full circle, the patient above was forced to pay out of pocket as well as look out of country just to get their life back. What if, Alberta was able to host patients like this? The influx of international funds would come into the budget as revenue and take the load off tax payers. In order to pursue this, Alberta would have to get much further advanced in their patient care than we currently are. For example, the patient above was told that if they received surgery in Alberta it would likely be a spinal fusion. Whereas Germany, proposes a prosethetic disc replacement to ensure spinal function in maintained. Why is Alberta and Canada not fighting to be on the frontlines of new medical interventions to improve patient outcome? This I cannot answer.
Did you know that the average Type 2 diabetic patient costs AHS about $2000 to $3000 annually? If hospitalized, this number jumps to between $10,000 and $30,000 per year per patient. These numbers do not include what the patient pays for insulin and other treatment requirements. About 360,000 to 380,000 people in Alberta live with Type 2 diabetes.
However, 9 out of 10 Type 2 diabetes cases can be delayed or avoided all together by lifestyle changes. So why are we not fighting the insurance companies that pay for medications without question, to instead support a gym membership or dietician consultation before the diagnosis? Why are we not asking for prevention instead or reaction? Prevention would save health care and insurance companies millions.
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