Statistics help to understand Alberta’s health care system

The health care sector employs 247,100 Albertans – about 11% of total employment in the province.

About 88,800 of these jobs are in the ambulatory health care services sub-sector, while 107,800 are employed in the hospitals sub- sector and 50,500 are employed in nursing and residential care facilities.

Some of the key occupations with the highest percentage of employment in the sector are: registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses, nurse aides, orderlies, and patient service associates, and licensed practical nurses.

In 2020, the health care sector contributed $16.7 billion to provincial GDP, which represents 5.4% of the provincial total.

Within the three health care-related sub-sectors: ambulatory health care services, hospitals, nursing and residential care facilities, employment prospects will be good between 2021 and 2023. This outlook is based the following factors: the presence of ongoing labour shortages within these sub-sectors, related recruitment and retention challenges, and the growing and ageing population.

Provincial Overview

Employment in the health care sector as a whole has increased by +16,300 jobs (+7%) from 2020 to 2021.

In the 2019-20 provincial budget, health care spending increased by one percent for a total of $20.6 billion. The two previous provincial budgets had increased health care spending by about three percent each.

Administration costs, research and education, ambulance services and support services all saw decreases to their budgets in 2019-20. In 2020, Alberta spent about $1.5 billion and set aside a further $1.25 billion in its 2020-21 budget as a contingency fund for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a four percent increase overall to the health budget in 2021-22.

In October 2020, the provincial government introduced cost-cutting measures including the planned lay-offs for between 9,700 and 11,000

Alberta Health Services (AHS) employees, most of whom work in laboratory, linen, cleaning and in-patient food services. Additionally, AHS hired staff to roll out COVID19 immunizations in 2021, and has announced a plan to spend $3.1 million for hiring up to 25 nurse practitioners.

Sector Trends

Alberta's population and its proportion of residents aged 65+ are predicted to increase over the next 20 years, contributing demand for health care occupations.

For the nursing and residential care facilities sub-sector, employment increased by +12,200 jobs (+31.8%) from 2020 to 2021. Employment in the hospitals sub-sector decreased by -7,500 jobs (-7%) from 2020 to 2021, while employment in the ambulatory health care services sub-sector increased by +11,600 jobs (+15%).

Within the health care sector, women are overrepresented compared to their percentage of the general working population in all other industries. Women represent 81% of the employment in the health care industry in Alberta. Women represent 75.7% of the ambulatory health care services sub-sector, 84% of the hopsitals sub-sector and 86% of the nursing and residential care facilities sub-sector.

The core age working population (25-54 years old) makes up about 73% of employment in the health care sector in Alberta.

Approximately 38,900 people work in this occupation across Alberta. Of these, 69% are full-time workers (compared to 81% for all occupations) and 31% are part-time workers compared to 19% for all occupations.

Most registered nurses work in hospitals (67%) while 19% work in ambulatory care and 9% work in nursing and residential care facilities.

The job vacancy rate for registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses in Alberta increased by 100% from the end of 2020 to the third quarter of 2021.

Alberta nurses recently ratified a new fouryear collective bargaining agreement that includes a 4.25% pay increase over the course of the contract, and a one-time lump sum pay- ment of one per cent for 2021 in recognition of nurses' contributions during the COVID-19 pandemic. There will be $5 million a year toward recruitment and retention strategies in rural and remote areas, and $2.5 million a year for relocation assistance. There will also be more psychological and mental health supports for nurses and the creation of a union-employer workload advisory committee.

Over the past year (2021) rural areas have seen long wait times for physician appointments, where there was no emergency doctor on site in rural hospitals, and long wait times for ambulances.

Saluting our hard working health care workers

Premier Smith’s government commits $158 million to health care worker shortage

Alberta Health Minister Jason Copping has announced that Premier Danielle Smith has committed $158 million in its upcoming budget to address shortages in health care workers.

"We still have significant health staffing issues now and we do have our projections — we're still going to have issues in the future. So we need to address that,"

Copping said. $90 million of the funding will go toward programs directed to recruit and retain physicians in Alberta, said the

Health Minister. $29 million will go rurally to serve remote communities. $7 million will go to the recruitment of internationally-trained nurses from the UK and USA, and $1 million more is intended to support nurses moving to Alberta.

"Things aren't going to change overnight, but we have laid the foundation for a strong and sustainable health system that provides every Albertan with access to a health home," he said.

Copping said his government’s plan is to: retain and support, attract, grow, strengthen, and evolve; through new approaches to remote delivery care and surgical staffing. There will be more support for intensive care units and emergency department staffing, he said, including a dedication to path- ways for immigration. The complete Alberta budget under the leadership of Premier Smith will be released next Tuesday, Feb. 28.