Province to address lengthy surgery wait times

by Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke | July 24, 2009 at 05:40 am

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The Alberta Health and Wellness budget was forecasted with a $1.1 Billion dollar deficit for the current fiscal year. This has resulted in some cuts. Some of the measures announced were the removal of same sex surgery from the approved procedures, a change in the Senior prescription drug program and cut backs in hip surgery.

The cut backs of on hip surgery has created waiting times for this procedure, which are not acceptable to the public. In view of this development, Premier Ed Stelmach is expected to make an announcement on how the Province of Alberta will deal with trimming these waiting periods.

A major announcement from the province on health care wait times will soon be made public.

Premier Ed Stelmach said the number of hip and joint surgeries are increasing and the province is set to unveil a plan to address those wait times.

"You'll hear some announcements soon (on) how we are going to deal the most significant issue -- wait times in emergency rooms," said Stelmach Wednesday.