Seven new health 'corridors' on the books for Alberta as health system overhaul continues

Questions are being raised about the Alberta government's plan to convert five health regions into seven new "health corridors," as it rearranges health-care planning.

The province is forging ahead with its health system overhaul, which involves gutting Alberta Health Services (AHS) and hiving off health-care delivery into four new organizations, which are in various stages of planning and operation.

Through the restructuring, Alberta Health Services — which consists of five zones — will be reduced to the role of hospital provider alongside other organizations, and will answer to the new acute care agency when it launches in the spring.

Once regional planning transitions to the province, seven corridors will be used for operational and capital funding decisions and to identify gaps in care, according to the provincial government.

"We are... taking a more integrated approach to health system planning to inform provincial and local decision making and better respond to the needs of Albertans," Health Minister Adriana LaGrange said at a Monday news conference.

"We're going to do this by transitioning from five standalone regional health zones to seven integrated health corridors whereby we will make better informed decisions about services, workforce and infrastructure."

The corridors will broken down as follows: northwest, northeast, Edmonton, central, Calgary, southwest and southeast.

 LaGrange said the change was based on travel patterns and where patients access care. Feedback gathered during public engagement sessions was also considered.

In addition to splitting the north and south zones each into two regions, LaGrange told reporters the boundaries will be redrawn for every zone.

"They don't look the same way as they do right now. All the corridors will be different than the five zones," LaGrange said.

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Dr. Braden Manns, a former AHS interim vice-president, is concerned about the plan.

"If they're talking about seven health zones, that's going to mean seven CEOs, seven physician leads. It's going to mean additional quality councils. It's going to mean more administration," said Manns, a professor of medicine and health economics at the University of Calgary.

"Now you've got four pillars and seven zones? That is a lot of relationships that need to happen."

The Alberta government has released few details about the plan. But it told CBC News, via email, the corridors will be run by Alberta Health — in collaboration with the four new provincial health agencies — and no new positions will be required.

A lot of questions have yet to be answered, Manns said.

"How will this be better than the situation for health system planning and for operational delivery of care than the system that we currently have with five zones?" he said. "Because it's going to cause a lot of churn, a lot of stress and it will be a difficult transition."

Manns said the changes won't address some of the key problems in the health system, including access to primary care providers and long surgical waitlists.

"It's going to lead to more uncertainty, more shuffling of jobs. There will be another [game of] musical chairs," he said.

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Alberta Medical Association president Dr. Shelley Duggan said an argument can be made for change because patients from some communities end up going to hospitals in other health zones for care, simply because they're closer.

"There are communities that... belong in a zone that they don't necessarily flow to," Duggan said, noting patients from Wetaskiwin and Camrose, for example, often end up in Edmonton even though they're located in the central zone.

"The only caveat is… whether or not your corridor can actually care for all the patients that it's assigned for. And that's a problem."

That requires an adequate number of health-care providers and infrastructure, Duggan said.

She's also worried about additional change at a time when many Albertans are without a family doctor and hospitals are struggling to keep up with demand.

"This is really creating instability during a time when we really don't need that," she said.