The Wildrose Party says Alberta Health Services' model for midwives is broken. They say that though there is waitlist of approximately 1600 women, and midwives in Alberta have the capacity to accomodate 1000 more women, midwife centres are running well-below their capacity.

Wildrose Shadow Health Minister Drew Barnes says he's disappointed the current demand for midwives is not being met due to an arbitrary funding cap set by the provincial government.

"It's another example of the Alberta Government, now the NDP, rationing efficient, effective services that Albertan's want because they can't control our health care costs. It's very disappointing that Albertans are going to lose access to a quality service."

Barnes says he wants the provincial government to re-allocate money from the $21 billion spent on next year's health care to help this cause.

"I'd like to see them allocate enough money so that parents that want to use the services of a midwife can. Then I'd like to see them look for efficiencies through our health care system so the beds that this will free up, the nursing time that this will free up are used to help other Albertans with other needs."

He says midwife centres are running at 75 percent capacity despite waiting lists. He's heard from various midwife practices about the needs that are not being met.

"I've talked to several of them and exchanged texts with several of them, and there's waiting lists. Our information shows that this method of delivery can save $1000 per time, it's also going to force a lot of these qualified, trained midwives out of the province to other jurisdictions that put higher value on their services."

Barnes says the Wildrose Party wants to see money re-allocated from next year's $21 billion dollar health care towards this service that's professional, good, and much more efficient than other birth methods.