Former Alberta Medical Association (AMA) president Dr. Paul Parks said Health Minister Adriana LaGrange failed to fulfill her promise on the family medicine funding model. If LaGrange and the Alberta government had any intention of prioritizing funding for family medicine and rural generalist care, Parks said they would have acted by now. “As rural hospitals close and people suffer, it is clear where the fault lays,” tweeted Parks on Wednesday. .Parks said he signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with LaGrange one year ago to work on the new family medicine funding model. He looked her in the eye and said they had to get this done fast. In response, LaGrange said she was a person of her word and this was her promise to deliver. The MOU required this work to inform Budget 2024, as time was of the essence. Since the Alberta government was new and had established a new relationship, he said he believed the promise given. However, he said now he does not “even believe the MOU was worth the paper it was written on.”He alleged the AMA worked diligently, but Alberta Health and the government did not keep their promise. On a number of occasions, they admitted they mishandled the file. Although the Alberta government created Primary Care Alberta (PCA) to make healthcare better, Parks said family medicine practices continue to close and Albertans suffer. While people have compared the Ontario government’s family medicine announcement to Alberta’s, he pointed out there are important differences. The Ontario government is going to spend money and budget for a new integrated model. Meanwhile, the Alberta government intends to take away frontline care to pay for the PCA with no spending or budget. “It truly disheartens me that we failed Albertans to deliver on a critical step to bolster primary care Access,” said Parks. “Govt will spin that they always intended to ‘take years to deliver,’ and they are working ‘at record speed for govt,’ and there are ‘processes.’” The Alberta government said in April it had developed a new funding model for family and rural generalist doctors that encourages them to stay in primary care. .UPDATED: Alberta government unveils new compensation model for family physicians .While the Alberta government is finalizing the details, it has agreed to a model that recognizes the unique work of family and rural generalist doctors. “It will be a new physician compensation model for family medicine and rural generalist physicians who are enumerated now through a fee for service or other alternative physician compensation model,” said LaGrange. LaGrange could not be reached for comment in time for publication.
