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Alberta government providing funding for palliative care

The United Conservative government is enhancing palliative care across the province.

Funding of $5 million will be provided to the Covenant Health Palliative Institute and $1 million will go to the Alberta Hospice Palliative Care Association.

The money is part of the government’s $20 million commitment to improving palliative care in Alberta.

Co-payments for end-of-life drugs will also be eliminated. Every year, about 2,700 Albertans who choose to die at home or in a hospice, pay out-of-pocket for end-of-life drugs that would have been covered in hospital. The Alberta government is putting an end to co-payments so all Albertans, no matter where they choose to spend their final moments, will not have to factor the cost of drugs into their decisions.

Health Minister Tyler Shandro says Albertans deserve to spend their final moments in comfort. “Palliative care preserves the dignity of the individual by affirming their life and by providing spiritual, emotional, and family support. Our partnership with Covenant Health and the AHPCA and our decision to end co-payments, represent a first step at ensuring all Albertans are able to achieve that.”

Meanwhile, Dan Williams (MLA for Peace River), has been appointed to consult with stakeholders and Albertans to help inform plans to allocate the remainder of the $20 million (approximately $14 million) in government funding for palliative care over the next three years.

Patrick Siedlecki
Patrick Siedlecki
Pat has been a mainstay in the CJOC News department from the time the station launched in 2007. He's been in the position of News Director since then and has been anchoring daily news casts as well as reporting and working behind the scenes. Community is important to him and keeping CJOC listeners and readers informed about what's happening across southern Alberta and beyond. Pat has been in radio broadcasting for the past 24 years, starting in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island in 1997 and then moving up island to Nanaimo for another few years before heading to Lethbridge in 2007. Pat grew up in the small Saskatchewan farming town of Foam Lake. After high school, he went to Western Academy Broadcasting College (WABC) in Saskatoon prior to moving to the island. Pat also spent several years broadcasting hockey in the BCHL as well as seven years as the radio voice of the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the WHL. Pat has been working at Cornerstone Funeral Home in Lethbridge as a Certified Life Celebrant and Funeral Assistant since 2016. News and sports have always been Pat's passion from the time he was a teenager and he's always been grateful to have had the opportunity to make that part of what's been a fun and long radio career!
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