Primary health care grants

Increasing access to – and strengthening – primary health care services across rural and remote areas of Alberta.

These grant programs are now closed.

Overview

The Municipality Supported Clinics Grant Program and the Rural Team Recruitment Grant Program were developed to increase access to, and strengthen, primary health care services across rural and remote areas of Alberta.

The team-based care grant programs supported:

  • municipalities and regions by providing funding for team-based models of care, especially where gaps existed due to family physician retirements or clinic closures
  • community organizations and clinics that wanted to hire additional team members to increase capacity within their clinic so clinicians could see more patients and remove access

The grants provided funding over 2 years. They were designed to:

  • increase access to primary health care services
  • improve the sustainability of rural health care
  • foster local solutions for health service delivery

The Rural Team Recruitment Grant covered 50% of salary and benefits for non-physician and nurse practitioner team hires, up to $145,000 annually.

The Municipality Supported Clinic Grant offered up to $200,000 over 2 years (matched by the municipality) to support municipal ownership or operation of a clinic, which covered staff salaries, administrative expenses and IT costs.

Alignment

The grants aligned with the Modernising Alberta’s Primary Health Care System (MAPS) initiative, which prioritized:

  • equitable access to health services regardless of rural or remote locations
  • modernizing rural health care approaches
  • engaging local communities in health care decision-making

To achieve the outcomes in MAPS and the Rural Health Action Plan 2024–2027, primary health care must be accessible to Albertans in their community. This required teams of health-care professionals working together to provide timely access to preventative, proactive care supported through infrastructure and information technology.

The 2 grant programs helped achieve these goals by investing stimulus finding for team-based care and strengthening primary health care across rural and remote areas in Alberta.

Funding

Funding for the grant programs was a result of the Canada-Alberta Agreement to Work Together to Improve Health Care for Canadians. Through the agreement, an additional $200 million was allocated to help:

  • improve access to family physicians
  • ensure primary health care is available for all Albertans when and where they need it

A significant portion of this additional funding was dedicated to stimulus funding for developing and promoting team-bases care, especially in rural and remote areas of Alberta.

Resources

News

Contact

Connect with the Rural Team-Based Care Grant Programs:

Email: primaryhealthcaregrant@gov.ab.ca