Alberta targets 24 communities for family care clinics

More family care clinics will be opening in Alberta after the province identified 24 communities as needing better access to primary health care.

The government will work with each community over the next few months to develop plans for eachclinic.

The stand-alone facilities will provide non-emergency services such as treating illnesses, screening, and immunization and will be staffed by health professionals to meet the unique health and social needs of the particular community.

Each clinic is expected to offer same day appointments and extended hours to improve access to health care.

The clinics will ensure "the health-care system is there for Albertans when they need it in the way that they need it and that all Albertans have easy access to primary care close to home wherever their home may be," said Premier Alison Redford. "Too many Albertans have been without it for too long."

Pilot projects for the family care clinicshave been running in Edmonton, Calgary and Slave Lake.

The province budgeted $50 million this year to support development of the clinics, some of which will open as soon as this year.

"This is something that is entirely different than what we're seeing anywhere else in the country," Redford said.

The clinicsare expected tocomplement the services provided by the40 primary-care networksin the province.

Those networks are privately-owned physician offices that receive government funding.

That worriesNDP leader Brian Mason, who believes family care clinics can reducethe number of emergency room visits.

"They're building in a massive duplication," he said. "Our view is the family care clinics is the better model. It's more community driven. It operates less on the basis of profit."

LiberalParty Leader RajSherman also favours the family care clinicmodel, butwonderedifthe province will have to cannibalize other sectors of the health system such as home or palliative care to pay for the clinics.