Alberta NDP health critics raise concerns about health campus in Airdrie

The Highwood NDP constituency association hosted a healthcare town hall in Okotoks on Aug. 22, and opposition health critics raised concerns about the proposed One Health urgent care and health campus building in Airdrie. 

The healthcare town hall event, featuring speeches by the Official Opposition critics for health, Dr. Luanne Metz, and mental health and addictions, Janet Eremenko, centred its conversations around the state of Albertan healthcare. 

Metz explained that the Airdrie region has had a long-term plan to build an urgent care centre, and contracts were in place, but a private American healthcare provider One Health came in at the last minute. 

“And [One Health] says, 'well, it's publicly funded.' Well, yes, it is. We're paying them to come up with a business plan and private corporation tax dollars, and then we're going to pay for the things that you need that are health services, but there's going to be a profit cut taken off of that,” said Metz.

The situation is a slippery slope according to Metz, and she raised concerns about the Alberta government ignoring opinions coming from qualified individuals. 

“We have a lot of problems, but we do have solutions,” Metz said. “We just can't bring them in without getting in government. Anything we bring forward or that is known to come from us is off the table... and therefore ideas from people that know and can suggest are totally ignored.” 

Metz also said that ideas from the Alberta Medical Association have been ignored due to a lack of trust. 

“So there's a very small group of people that are bringing forward solutions that either don't know the system or that have direct solutions that aren't based in any kind of evidence,” said Metz. 

The event also raised general concerns about the current state of primary health care in Alberta as well. Metz stated changes must be made. 

“Overburdened hospitals and emergency departments... we need to fix that. For years, it's been building up, and we need to change that,” said Metz. 

-With files from Amir Said/ Great West Media