Orissa Shima, a nurse at the Sturgeon Community Hospital and president of the local nurses' union, said she sees no relief in this budget for nurses at the Sturgeon Community Hospital.
“I think there is a sense of distrust with this government where health care is concerned,” she said.
On Feb. 24, the province released its 2022 budget, with $22 billion slated for operating expenses in health care. This is an increase of $515 million from the 2021 budget forecast, and does not include costs related to COVID-19.
“The last few years have revealed a lack of health-care capacity, specifically ICU, surgical, and critical-care capacity,” Minister of Finance Travis Toews said in a news conference on Thursday.
The fiscal plan states the implications of the pandemic on the health-care system are still to be determined, and health-care costs for the pandemic in the 2022 budget will be funded with COVID contingency cash.
“While I'm thankful COVID hospitalizations are coming down, there still remains uncertainty," Toews said Thursday.
“To ensure health has the resources required to deal with this uncertainty, Budget 2022 sets aside $750 million in a COVID contingency. This contingency provides flexible funding to address the surgical backlog and ensures the province can cover other evolving and uncertain pandemic costs,” said Toews.
Funds to address surgical backlogs will not go toward chartered surgical facilities, according to the province.
Toews said some of the funding in the 2022 budget includes money to attract more doctors to practice in rural and remote areas, along with allocating funds to emergency medical services to address capacity needs.
The 2022 budget for Alberta Health Services (AHS) is projecting an increase of 3.3 per cent from the 2021-22 forecast. The province's 2022 budget has set aside nearly $15.1 billion for AHS operating costs.
The 2022 budget will address strategic priorities, which include the Alberta Surgical Initiative, and the CT and MRI Access Initiative.
Health-care capacity
Within the AHS budget for 2022, the province is set to invest $100 million per year for the next three years in targeted funding, which will permanently add health-care capacity. The funding will go towards adding new ICU beds under the Health System Capacity Action Plan.
The province's 2022 budget has also set aside $603 million for emergency medical services, an increase of $64 million from the previous year's budget. The funding is to address capacity needs and pressures in the system as a new EMS service plan is developed.
Budget 2022 maintains the planned level of spending on physicians at $5.5 billion per year, states the budget document. That money includes grants to post-secondary institutions for academic medicine.
Community-care, continuing-care, and home-care programs are set to see an increase of $219 million in 2022, for a total budget of $3.7 billion for the fiscal year.
The province plans to add 1,515 new continuing-care beds in long-term care, designated supported living, and mental-health beds, along with day spaces for mental health, and adult day program spaces for 2022-23.
Budget 2022 plans to invest an additional $20 million for recovery-oriented systems of care in 2022, on top of its yearly $1 billion in mental-health and addictions spending.
Drugs and supplemental health benefits are set to reach a total of $2 billion in 2022, an increase of $110 million from the previous year.
Nursing shortage
Shima is worried the government will be pulling nurses from the public system to run private operating rooms. She said the OR at the Sturgeon struggles with staffing chronically, as do other departments and departments from across the province.
“There is a global nursing shortage, and it will take co-operation amongst leaders to address it. The Sturgeon is not immune to these shortages. We had to close surgery beds last summer due to shortages of nursing staff,” she said.
Ultimately, Shima sees no relief with this budget and no plans to increase staffing.
“Just more of the same,” she said.
The province's 2022 budget is predicting operating expenses for health will increase by 2.7 per cent in each of the next two years, with a target of $22.6 billion in total spending on operating expense for 2022-23, excluding the $750-million COVID contingency fund, and $23.2 billion in spending 2024-25.
