Alberta Health considers a private urgent-care centre

AIRDRIE, AB – Alberta Health is currently exploring a proposed “campus” in the city of Airdrie that would see a “one-stop shop” built that aims to serve most healthcare needs in the municipality located north of Calgary. The proposal comes from a private company called One Health Associate Medical.

Backers of the project told CBC News they hope it could serve as a prototype for other communities across Alberta that are struggling to serve residents amid a healthcare crisis, with a goal of reducing unnecessary urgent care visits and wait times.

But it has simultaneously raised concerns from public health advocates, who are uneasy about the project’s potential to reshape the landscape around privately delivered, publicly funded health care in the province.

Currently, all urgent care facilities across the province are operated by Alberta Health Services.

Alberta has a history of implementing various publicly funded healthcare arrangements with private corporations, including arrangements put in place to address surgical backlogs, and privatized community lab services.

But a for-profit operator of an urgent care centre in Alberta would be a first, and something the public health non-profit group Friends of Medicare calls a possible “massive, unprecedented shift.”

“This would be a huge step to how we deliver healthcare,” said Chris Galloway, the organization’s executive director. It comes after years of fits and starts tied to various healthcare initiatives in Airdrie, a community that has seen its population boom in recent years.

“Our proposal [is] that we build a facility where a primary care and enhanced primary care team is present,” said Dr. Julian Kyne (pictured), a long-time physician in the community and director of One Health Associate Medical. “Doctors are present, co-located with an urgent care centre.”

In December 2023, the provincial government provided One Health Airdrie with an $85,000 grant to initiate a business case. That business case has been submitted and is currently being studied by the province.

A government spokesperson said there have been no decisions made about who would operate a possible site proposed by One Health.

Airdrie is home to more than 80,000 people, making it the largest community in the province without a hospital. The city already has a 24-hour urgent care centre, but advocates have long been pushing for expanded services.

“We’re told quite often, you’re really close to Calgary. Go to Calgary,” said Michelle Bates, executive director of the Airdrie Health Foundation, a charity that raises money for health in the Airdrie area. “And for a while, that made sense.”

But Airdrie is one of the fastest-growing communities in the province, with a population that’s surged from around 56,000 residents in 2014 to more than 83,000 residents in 2023. Joan MacDonald has been one of those Airdrie residents for 35 years.

“Airdrie desperately needs more doctors, desperately needs a hospital,” she said. “Going into urgent care is hours and hours of wait.”

Dishant Oza, another resident, said he visited urgent care with a fractured leg, but was told it would be a 24-hour wait. “The nearest hospital we have is in Calgary, which takes like 30 minutes to drive down,” Oza said.

The urgent care facility in the community is equipped to handle immediate health issues and started offering 24/7 urgent care in 2017. But there are gaps, including around labour and delivery, diabetes care and overnight beds, and the site’s footprint can’t grow any further, according to Bates with the Airdrie Health Foundation.

So residents were pleased to see $3 million over three years allocated from the province for the planning of a north Calgary and Airdrie regional health centre as a part of the 2023 provincial budget. The province has also allocated $8.4 million to renovations of the urgent care centre.

The planned upgrades were temporarily put on pause in February 2024, when the provincial government said it would consider the pitch from One Health Associate Medical and developer Qualico Communities.

Though One Health’s business case is still under review, renovations at the urgent care are expected to be completed next summer, according to the province.

Kyne with One Health said, under the group’s proposal, the health campus would provide diagnostic imaging, a pharmacy, primary healthcare, medical specialists, and more.

When it comes to urgent care, the proposal asserts that 40 to 50 percent of patients who show up at urgent care could be seen by a family doctor. By having co-located urgent and primary care, the facility would be able to divert patients to more appropriate appointments with family doctors, Kyne said.

“Saving the healthcare system untold thousands of dollars every day,” he added.

The Airdrie Health Foundation has yet to see One Health’s proposal. Bates said having another urgent care facility in the city would be positive – it would likely bring down wait times, for instance. But it has raised questions about whether this proposal might throw cold water on the group’s ultimate goal of establishing a possible future hospital.

“Will this take away from what we get in the future? Will it be another, ‘Airdrie has what they need right now, and we can just put this long-term plan off?’” she said.

Kyne doesn’t foresee that becoming an issue. “We’re talking about primary care, community-based care, whereas a hospital is tertiary care. That would have absolutely no influence on whether or not a hospital is planned for Airdrie,” he said.

Airdrie Mayor Peter Brown shares that view of the proposal. “It’s really exciting. It’s really innovative. It changes how we do things,” he said. “There’s a lot of real pluses to this. It also provides a real opportunity for health professionals that live in Airdrie and area to work closer to home.”