Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has renewed Alberta Health Services’ (AHS) official administrator Dr. John Cowell’s appointment until the end of the year following a reduction in hospital and ambulance wait times.
Cowell was appointed to establish a Health Care Action plan in November, weeks after Smith became Premier and dismissed former provincial chief medical health officer Deena Hinshaw.
In the months since, ambulance wait times in Calgary have been cut by nearly half.
“Dr. Cowell’s appointment has now been extended to the end of the year to continue the work to further improve health care so Albertans can access it when and where they need it,” Smith wrote on Twitter.
Cowell was charged with reducing ambulance, emergency room, and surgical wait times and developing long-term reforms through consultations with front-line workers. He reports directly to the provincial Health Minister, a role given to Adriana LaGrange after Jason Copping lost his seat in the May provincial election.
AHS data from May shows massive improvements in wait times since Smith became premier and appointed Cowell.
For example, Calgary ambulances responded to urgent calls in metro and urban areas in 12 minutes on average in April, compared to nearly 22 minutes last November.
There’s also been a huge improvement in red alerts, which are issued when no ambulances are available to respond to 911 calls in a given area. Calgary spent about four minutes on red alert in April, down from 4.2 hours in November.
The government of Alberta says other improvements include a 17% decrease in wait times at emergency departments, fewer patients waiting longer than clinically recommended for surgeries, and the addition of more nurses, paramedics and other front-line staff.
LaGrange says Albertans can already see tangible results.
“I look forward to working with (Cowell) over the next six months to continue improvements in health care delivery until a permanent governance structure for AHS is developed,” she said in a statement.
