Alberta Health has announced funding for nine new Family Care Clinic (FCC) locations in the province; Athabasca is not one of them.
“These investments are part of our government’s ongoing efforts to increase the availability and convenience of primary health-care services in Alberta communities,” Minister of Health and Wellness Fred Horne said in a press release last Thursday.
$45 million in new funding under Budget 2014 has been made available for the nine locations, which include two each in Calgary and Edmonton, as well as single locations in Consort, Peace River and Sylvan Lake. The Siksika Nation and the Métis Nation of Alberta have also been promised one FCC each.
The announcement noted the province will come nowhere near former premier Alison Redford’s 2012 campaign promise of 140 FCCs in Alberta by 2015.
According to Gerry Kiselyk, member of the Athabasca Working Group for the FCC, Alberta Health Services (AHS) has informed the group Athabasca’s FCC will be included in a later wave, which may be a good thing.
“We want to be very cautious, so that when it’s put in place, it’s put in place right,” Kiselyk said.
Kiselyk would like to avoid any issues similar to those of the FCC installed in Slave Lake during the pilot program in 2012. Some Slave Lake residents have said doctors left the community due to problems with the FCC.
Kiselyk believes Athabasca/Boyle will still get the FCC the region was shortlisted for (along with 23 other communities) in June of last year.
“The province is saying we’re going to get this in one way, shape or form, and we’re confident that will happen,” he said.
