'More money won't fix the problem': Brian Jean unveils plan to overhaul Alberta's health-care system

Alberta's health-care system needs an entire rethink to slash wait times for surgery and get better outcomes for patients, according to a plan released Monday by United Conservative Party leadership hopeful Brian Jean.

Jean says his 2030 plan to re-vamp health care would stress three changes:

• Copy best practices used in other provinces to trim wait times
• Change the family doctor funding model to a bundled per-capita approach with incentives for doctors to use innovative, preventative care approaches
• Create a single, electronic, medical record system with a mobile access so patients and their caregivers have easier access to records

"It's time for things to change," Jean said Monday at an event at the South Health Campus in Calgary.

That means doing all we can to actually cure people when they get sick."

Jean said his own family's experience with Alberta's health-care system as his son suffered from an undiagnosed, nine-month illness that proved fatal convinced him that major changes were needed.

He said poor communication often left him and his family in the dark about his son's treatment.

"These gaps failed our family like they fail many families in Alberta," Jean said.

Given that Alberta spends more on health care than any other province, increasing funding isn't the solution, Jean said.

Instead, Alberta should start funding hospitals on an activity basis, so that they focus on outcomes for patients and have an incentive to efficiently discharge healthier patients, rather than view them as a cost.

"Just spending more money won't fix the problem, we need to fix the system," he said.

"I have heard countless stories from Albertans who have seen the health-care system fail their families. I've seen it firsthand. It's time we start delivering solutions."

The former Wildrose Party leader also wants to see greater use of home care and flexible seniors' facilities to end what he called "divorce by nursing home," where couples get separated because their care needs diverge.

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