The province’s auditor-general says the government is preparing for a multi billion dollar expansion of primary health care services without knowing if it will actually work.
Merwan Saher’s latest report says the province hasn’t done a thorough study on how effective primary care networks have been; even though it’s spent $700 million on the programs.
“That’s not to say that some of the objectives are not being achieved,” he said. “It’s just that it cannot be demonstrated with evidence that comes from evaluation.”
He says Albertans haven’t been informed as to which of the 40 PCNs they’ve been assigned to; and the PCNs haven’t been told which Albertans have been assigned to them.
The province is planning to build 140 new family care clinics, which will work in a similar fashion to PCNs.
Published July 5, 2012
