EDMONTON—Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is open to the idea of the province potentially reimbursing people who need to travel out of province for medically necessary surgery if it cannot be provided quickly enough at home. During Ms. Smith’s weekly radio call-in show, Your Premier, Your Province, a caller sent in a message stating he needed…

A man who co-authored a book on government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic said he is not surprised about the recent controversy over Dr. Deena Hinshaw in Alberta. Hinshaw was chief medical officer of health for the province through the pandemic, but was replaced in the fall of 2022, after Premier Danielle Smith came to…

After more than three years of mandatory continuous masking in Alberta hospitals, long-term care facilities, labs, and other health-related government-managed sites, Alberta Health Services (AHS) has rescinded the requirement. The decision to end masking was announced on June 15, with AHS stating that as of June 19, continuous masking will no longer be required at…

EDMONTON—A network outage that affected Alberta Health Services (AHS) for much of the day on Jan. 23 has been resolved and services are returning to normal, according to a 2 p.m. local time update on a temporary website the government health agency created to provide ongoing information. The outage resulted in the postponement of some…

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she is seeking a second medical opinion concerning a woman who sued Alberta Health Services (AHS) and her transplant doctors for denying her a life-saving organ transplant unless she first receives COVID-19 shots. The premier was asked during a press conference on Nov. 29 about Sheila Annette Lewis, who recently…

In what may be one of the largest cases of doctor billing fraud in Canada’s history, Yifei Shi, a 35-year old Edmonton family doctor, was sentenced to four years in jail on Nov. 17. Shi pled guilty to fraudulently billing Alberta Health Services over $827,000 in 2016 and was ordered by Court of King’s Bench…

Premier Danielle Smith announced Thursday that the Alberta Health Services (AHS) board has been replaced with a full-time experienced administrator, who previously held the role, to make immediate changes to the health care system. Dr. John Cowell has been appointed to carry out health care reform promises made during Smith’s election campaign, the premier said at…

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced Thursday that the Alberta Health Services (AHS) board has been replaced with a full-time experienced administrator, who previously held the role, to make immediate changes to the health care system. Dr. John Cowell has been appointed to carry out health care reform promises made during Smith’s election campaign, the premier said…

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced Thursday that the Alberta Health Services (AHS) board has been replaced with a full-time experienced administrator, who previously held the role, to make immediate changes to the health care system. Dr. John Cowell has been appointed to carry out health care reform promises made during Smith’s election campaign, the premier said…

A large group of health care workers have written an open letter to Alberta’s new premier, Danielle Smith, criticizing Alberta Health Services (AHS) for what they call the organization’s “draconian” policies and “mismanagement” during the province’s COVID-19 response. The letter states Smith was accurate in describing the unvaccinated as “the most discriminated group of Albertans”…