Alberta Healthcare: 11% of Cardiac Patients Get Surgery on Time

CALGARY, AB — Only 11% of patients in Alberta are getting their cardiac bypass surgery within the recommended timeframe, according to the latest provincial data from October 2025—a nosedive from 60% in October 2019. The numbers landed on social media this week, triggering pointed questions aimed at Minister of Hospital and Surgical Health Services Matt Jones and Health Minister Adriana LaGrange.

The post, blunt and public, asks the question hanging over Alberta's healthcare restructuring: Why are wait times for life-saving heart surgery getting worse while the province pours hundreds of millions into surgical reform?

The Fix That Hasn't Fixed

The Alberta Surgical Initiative—launched with $377 million earmarked for more surgeries and $265 million to expand operating rooms—was supposed to be the answer. Instead, cardiac bypass patients are stuck in a system that has slowed to a crawl. In 2019, six out of ten patients met clinical timelines. Now it's roughly one in ten.

Stacey Litvinchuk, a former senior program officer for surgery operations at AHS and lead of the Alberta Surgical Initiative, now works as a health-care consultant. She has publicly raised alarms about worsening wait times for critical surgeries. Her warnings carry weight: she built part of the system now under scrutiny.

The Restructure Wild Card

Alberta Health Services was dismantled in 2025 and demoted to a hospital service provider. Four new Provincial Health Agencies took over: Acute Care Alberta now runs the show on hospital care and surgical delivery. The reshuffling was finalized under Bill 55 in May 2025, with Premier Danielle Smith declaring the overhaul "pretty much done" by December.

Whether Acute Care Alberta can turn around cardiac surgery timelines remains an open question. The agency inherited a backlog, aging infrastructure, and a funding model that hasn't yet flipped to the "activity-based" system Smith announced in April 2025. That model—tying public dollars directly to the number and type of procedures—is slated for rollout in 2026, but implementation details remain murky.

The Private Clinic Gamble

Public payments to chartered surgical facilities nearly doubled from $28.6 million in 2022-23 to $55.8 million in 2023-24. The theory: outsource some procedures to private clinics, free up public operating rooms, and reduce wait times across the board.

The results tell a different story. A March 2025 report from the Parkland Institute argued that private facilities cost more and haven't significantly reduced wait times. Friends of Medicare, through Executive Director Chris Gallaway, pointed out the obvious: opening new private centers doesn't create more surgeons, anesthesiologists, or nurses.

Two planned chartered surgical facilities in Lethbridge and Red Deer were cancelled in late November 2025 due to "outdated economic assumptions and operational challenges." Acute Care Alberta is supposed to launch a new procurement process in early 2026, but that timeline has yet to produce concrete action.

The Money vs. The Results

Alberta Budget 2025 allocated $28 billion to healthcare operating expenses, a 5.4% increase. Acute care services got $4.6 billion of that pot. The Alberta Medical Association welcomed the cash but flagged a projected $600 million shortfall in the physician compensation budget and questioned whether investments in private surgical facilities were actually delivering wait time reductions.

The Alberta NDP, led by Naheed Nenshi, has branded the situation a full-blown crisis. Health Critic Sarah Hoffman has hammered the government over restructuring delays, private clinic costs, and stagnant timelines. In January 2026, emergency physicians sent warnings directly to Smith and her health ministers about dangerous overcrowding, patient deaths, and near-misses in Alberta hospitals.

What Happens Next

The social media callout directed at Jones and LaGrange isn't going away. Cardiac bypass surgery is high-stakes: patients waiting too long face higher risks of heart attack, stroke, or death. Clinical benchmarks exist for a reason, and the system is missing them by a mile.

Acute Care Alberta now owns the operational fix. The activity-based funding model could shift incentives, but only if it's implemented correctly and soon. The province has the budget, the agencies, and the political pressure. What it still lacks is proof that any of it is working where it matters most: in the operating room.