New Alberta Medical Association head aims to immediately address primary-care access concerns

Alberta Medical Association president Dr. Paul Parks (Amanda Anderson/CTV News Edmonton)

The new head of the Alberta Medical Association describes the health-care system in the province as fragile as he travels across it.

Dr. Paul Parks assumed the post of president of the AMA two weeks ago and is hitting the road to meet with frontline workers across Alberta, but one thing he's already warning: the province's health-care system needs investment and action soon.

"We're worried that things are going to get dangerous and impact patient care," Parks said Tuesday during a stop at Edmonton's inner-city Radius Community Health & Healing.

Concerns are numerous, and Parks is quickly learning there's lots of work to do.

"The key piece of this is, I think, after the last three, four years, COVID, the way things went with government previously, it’s been a tough time and we’re kind of moving forward and there’s a lot of issues to address in the system," Parks told CTV News Edmonton.

His plan to travel across the province to hear directly from front-line health-care workers -- to get "face-to-face, finding out what the frontlines are dealing with, finding out what their issues are so that we can take it back and appropriately advocate to the stakeholders and decision-makers" -- is the kind of dialogue that Dr. Francesco Mosaico, the medical director at Radius Health, feels is essential in making sure clinics have the resources they need.

"It’s essential because when we’re in the trenches, we’ve got to focus on what we’re doing in the trenches," Mosaico said. "We don’t always have the reach back to leadership or where policy is made or where policy is applied, and so having this connection ... makes us feel very supported."

Parks says "absolutely" that what happens in the community impacts "what happens in the hospitals and the acute care system" and that, while each community is different, a common concern is a lack of family doctors.

He said it's critical the issue is addressed "immediately."

"In the entire healthcare workforce with nurses (and) physicians, we are in crisis mode," said Parks, adding that about 800,000 Albertans don't have access to primary care. "We have lost a lot of them. A lot have moved on to different types of jobs or different types of practices or they’ve left the province."

He said he's met with Alberta Health Minister Adriana LaGrange about the deficit of primary-care access.

"I’ve been meeting with the minister of health and her team," Parks said. "I’m optimistic they share the concern that this is an issue and that we’re going to try to work collaboratively to move forward."