{"id":519463,"date":"2026-03-07T02:43:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T02:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/519463\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T02:43:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T02:43:37","slug":"alberta-minister-optimistic-about-er-doctor-deal-doesnt-blame-physicians-for-delay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/519463\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta minister optimistic about ER doctor deal, doesn\u2019t blame physicians for delay"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alberta Hospitals Minister Matt Jones says he doesn\u2019t blame doctors for the delay in a core government plan to address extreme pressures in the province\u2019s emergency departments.<\/p>\n

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Jones said Tuesday he\u2019s hopeful the government and doctors can find a way to hire the emergency department triage liaison physicians he previously promised for February.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m optimistic we can find a solution. There\u2019s two sides to this, and I take accountability for our side of it,\u201d he said at an unrelated news conference in Calgary.<\/p>\n

Jones made the pledge in January in an effort to expedite patients through emergency rooms in the wake of stories of suffering and potentially preventable hospital deaths.<\/p>\n

His remarks come a day after United Conservative Premier Danielle Smith was more blunt. When asked for an update on the file, she pointed to the Alberta Medical Association, which represents doctors.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI would just suggest you ask the AMA,\u201d she said Monday.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlberta doctors hope new triage doctor role is properly resourced\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Dr. Brian Wirzba, the association\u2019s president, later said in a statement that weeks of confusion among government ministries and agencies about who is responsible for contract conditions left negotiations in limbo.<\/p>\n

\u201cContrary to what was stated in a government press conference today, the delay has not been on the AMA\u2019s end and is not solely related to the compensation rate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Wirzba said the government didn\u2019t follow a previous agreement that outlines how \u201calternative relationship plans,\u201d or ARPs, are meant to be approved and implemented when approaching the triage liaison physician file.<\/p>\n

ARPs are special wage agreements for doctor pay that differ from the traditional fee-for-service model.<\/p>\n

Wirzba said doctors want to take on the jobs, and there is no time to waste in resolving the issue, given the public\u2019s concern about the emergency department \u201ccrisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On Tuesday, Jones said he\u2019s met with ER physicians interested in the role, and got a budget of $20 million approved over two years to implement the position in nine hospitals across Alberta.<\/p>\n

\u201c(I\u2019m) certainly not blaming the AMA,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlberta ER doctors detail preventable deaths and \u2018near misses\u2019 in letter to province\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Asked twice about the government failing to follow the negotiation process laid out in the master agreement, Jones reiterated that the government continues to engage with the association.<\/p>\n

A January letter from the organization\u2019s section of emergency medicine outlined seven sticking points with the government\u2019s proposed contract.<\/p>\n

They relate to pay rates, administration burdens and liability protection for the special ER doctors.<\/p>\n

So far, Jones said, the government has agreed to one adjustment for after-hours pay.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re happy to work through those, although we can\u2019t work through them immediately. It does take time,\u201d said Jones.<\/p>\n

He said a meeting with the doctors\u2019 association is scheduled for this month, and more meetings are to follow as part of negotiations for a broader pay agreement.<\/p>\n

Jones did not offer a timeline for when the triage liaison position might be deployed.<\/p>\n

If both sides can\u2019t come to terms soon, Jones said, short-term contingency plans could include bringing in nurse practitioners and triage nurses or boosting emergency room budgets.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlberta Medical Association\u2019s Dr. Paul Parks on overcrowded hospitals and patient deaths\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Nurse Practitioner Association of Alberta said the backlog of patients in waiting rooms isn\u2019t because of a lack of assessments by nurses, nurse practitioners or other front line staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pressures facing Alberta\u2019s emergency departments are largely driven by broader system capacity challenges \u2014 including limited community-based resources and ongoing barriers to admitting patients from the ED and discharging patients from hospital,\u201d it said in a statement to The Canadian Press.<\/p>\n

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Alberta\u2019s Opposition NDP has painted the original announcement as a communications exercise rather than an effective strategy to address ER concerns.<\/p>\n

Sharif Haji, the NDP critic for primary health services, told reporters Tuesday that Albertans are no closer to a solution that could address crowded ERs, and accused the minister of dragging his feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about people dying in hospitals while awaiting care. It\u2019s not a time to play a blame game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat needs to happen is governing, and this government is incapable of governing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haji added that deploying triage liaison physicians was originally presented as an urgent, temporary solution, so the government tying that solution to a long-term contract negotiation was \u201cbaffling.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2026 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alberta Hospitals Minister Matt Jones says he doesn\u2019t blame doctors for the delay in a core government plan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[205131,7611,173363,49,48,79149,84,392,714],"class_list":["post-519463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-alberta-doctors","tag-alberta-legislature","tag-alberta-medical-association","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-emergency-room","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}