When Alberta adopted public healthcare, I supported it completely.
Most Canadians of my generation did. The idea was simple. No matter where you lived, no matter how much money you earned, you would receive the healthcare you needed. For many years, especially in rural Alberta, that promise was kept.
Today, after nearly fifty years of using the healthcare system, I believe we need to ask an uncomfortable question:
What happened?
My wife and I experienced Alberta healthcare at what I believe was its best.
In 1976, our first child was born in a small Alberta community of roughly 3,000 people. The local hospital provided everything we needed. There were family doctors, surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, and maternity services. Nobody talked about travelling to Grande Prairie. Nobody talked about Edmonton. Nobody talked about driving hundreds of kilometres for routine medical care.
The care was local.
The people providing it were part of the community.
The hospital was there when you needed it.
When our first child was born, I rented a private room for my wife after delivery. The cost was five dollars a day, which my employer covered. The delivery room itself was large enough for my wife, the doctor, two nurses, myself, and several medical students or interns. There were nearly ten people in the room.
Today, many hospitals would struggle to accommodate that number of people. Operating rooms are smaller. Restrictions are tighter. Patients and families often feel like visitors instead of participants in their own care.
That experience was not unique to our town. Rural Alberta hospitals provided real services. Small communities had emergency rooms, maternity wards, surgical capabilities, and physicians who knew their patients personally.
The system worked.
Over the years, however, something changed.
Services began disappearing from smaller communities. Specialists concentrated in larger cities. Rural hospitals lost staff. Doctors retired and were not replaced. Temporary closures became common. Ambulance shortages appeared. Patients increasingly travelled long distances for care that was once available close to home.
Today, in many rural communities, the first answer to a medical problem is not treatment.
The answer is transportation.
Go to High Prairie.
Go to Grande Prairie.
Go to Edmonton.
Maybe there is a specialist there.
Maybe there is an operating room available.
Maybe there is a bed.
I experienced this myself. After injuring my shoulder, I was asked to travel to Edmonton simply to have it treated. Years ago, such treatment would often have been available much closer to home.
When people in rural Alberta say healthcare has deteriorated, this is what they mean.
The buildings may still exist.
The signs may still say “hospital.”
But the services that people depend upon are disappearing.
Meanwhile, Canadians continue debating whether the system should remain exactly as it is. Demonstrations are held to protect the status quo. Politicians promise more funding. Governments change. Health authorities reorganize departments.
Yet patients continue waiting.
The reality is that we face problems that money alone may not solve.
Canada faces shortages of family doctors, specialists, surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. Rural communities often face the greatest challenges.
An additional problem is approaching rapidly.
Many physicians belong to the baby boom generation. Within the next five to ten years, a significant number of experienced doctors will retire. Some estimates suggest that roughly one in five Canadian physicians may be approaching retirement age.
That means the shortage we see today may become even worse.
Training replacements takes years.
Training a physician requires nearly a decade of education and residency. Training a surgeon can take even longer. The cost of educating a specialist can exceed a million dollars before that doctor begins practising independently.
Even if Canada decided tomorrow to train thousands of additional physicians, the benefits would not be seen for many years.
Many people suggest recruiting doctors from other countries. International physicians certainly help our healthcare system, but this cannot be the entire solution.
Many countries face doctor shortages themselves.
Taking physicians from countries that already struggle to provide healthcare simply transfers the problem elsewhere. The world is competing for the same limited number of doctors, nurses, and specialists.
Meanwhile, our population continues to age.
People live longer.
Chronic illnesses increase.
Medical treatments become more complicated and expensive.
Demand continues rising faster than the supply of healthcare workers.
Eventually something has to change.
My fear is that within a few years the healthcare system may increasingly become a system of triage. The sickest patients will receive care while everyone else waits longer and longer.
As people wait, their conditions worsen.
Their treatments become more expensive.
Their outcomes become poorer.
The healthcare system then spends more money treating advanced illness that might have been prevented earlier.
This creates a vicious cycle.
Long waits create sicker patients.
Sicker patients create higher costs.
Higher costs create even more pressure on the system.
This is why I believe we need to seriously discuss new solutions.
Artificial intelligence may become one of those solutions.
AI systems are already helping doctors interpret scans, identify diseases, review medical records, and assist with diagnoses. Robotic surgery continues to advance. Autonomous technologies may eventually help perform certain procedures, particularly in areas where specialists are unavailable.
Some people are uncomfortable with these ideas.
I understand that.
But we may have little choice.
If we cannot train enough doctors, if retirements continue, and if patient demand keeps growing, intelligent machines and AI-assisted medicine may become necessary simply to maintain access to healthcare.
This does not mean replacing doctors.
It means helping the doctors we have treat more patients, make decisions faster, and provide care to communities that increasingly struggle to attract medical professionals.
I supported public healthcare in the 1970s because it worked.
I still believe every Canadian deserves access to healthcare regardless of income.
But supporting public healthcare does not mean ignoring reality.
Doing nothing is also a decision.
The healthcare system I experienced in 1976 is largely gone.
A town of 3,000 people once had the services necessary to deliver babies, perform procedures, and care for families close to home.
Today, many Albertans travel hours for care that previous generations received in their own communities.
That is not progress.
That is decline.
The greatest threat to public healthcare is not discussing change. The greatest threat is pretending that the current system can continue indefinitely without major reform.
We need more doctors.
We need better use of technology.
We need honest discussions about healthcare delivery.
And we need to start now, before the retirement of another generation of physicians pushes an already strained system beyond its limits.
If we fail to act, the healthcare system that served rural Alberta so well in the 1970s may eventually disappear entirely.
That would be a loss not only for rural communities, but for every Canadian who still believes that quality healthcare should be available when we need it most.
Alberta Healthcare Reality 
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