“The most troubling finding is that public operating room activity was actually lower in the most recent year than even pre-pandemic,” the report’s author, Andrew Longhurst, a B.C.-based health researcher, told a news conference.

“Provincial policy and funding decisions are encouraging the movement of limited staff, including operating room nurses and anesthetists already in short supply, into the for-profit sector, which, keep in mind, only performs the lowest-complexity surgeries, does not provide emergency care and does not provide followup care,” he said.

“This is having real consequences on how Albertans are able to access life-saving health care in the province, and specifically surgical care; median wait times under the [surgical initiative] are longer for most priority procedures than before its inception.”

Longhurst’s analysis shows that while provincial spending on public hospitals increased only marginally between fiscal year 2019-20 and 2023-24, spending on private surgical facilities nearly tripled to $55.8 million from $20 million.

Fuck Smith. God damn her.