Alberta's Tory leader has announced money for faster treatment in emergency rooms, but the Grit leader — an ER physician — says the program is already in place.

Tory Leader Alison Redford Thursday said patients with "easily identifiable, treatable injuries" - like a broken arm, kitchen burn, cold or flu - would be funnelled off to a "fast track."

That's a separately staffed area in the ER where the patients are treated.

Such patients, suffering "less-serious, and serious but non-life-threatening injuries" are currently often pushed back in favour of more serious, sometimes life-threatening cases. That can lead to longer wait times as some patients are pushed back again and again.

"Through this initiative, these patients will be appropriately directed through a quicker screening process that will result in faster treatment and a faster return home for all patients," said Redford.

"Fantastic idea," Alberta Liberal Leader and ER doc Raj Sherman shot back in a news release titled "Alison Redford Invents Triage."

"Why didn't we think of it earlier? We need to come up with a name for this. Why don't we call it triage?" Sherman quipped.

Triage is a regular practice in emergency rooms and is simply the sorting and treatment of patients according to how urgently they need care.

In other words, people with broken limbs and bad burns receive treatment before patients showing up with apparent colds or general aches and pains.

Redford will earmark about $2.5 million for every health care facility that decides to incorporate the "quicker screening process" into their system.

But Sherman says "fast track emergency rooms already exist in every major hospital in the province."

His plan would instead double money for home care to $808 million a year, increase funding and standards for non-profit long term care and train more medical professionals.

Meanwhile, the Wildrose Party is promising a hospital wait-time guarantee.

Speaking in Calgary, leader Danielle Smith said their plan would include reimbursement for operations done outside of Alberta's public system. Patients would see reimbursements paid out equivalent to what the same procedure would cost in Alberta.

The party is also looking to bolster both public and private healthcare delivery.

“It means our public health system will be strengthened by introducing choice and competition, empowering local hospitals to make decisions, and putting an end to the queue jumping and bureaucratic paralysis that have been shameful hallmarks of healthcare under the PCs," says Smith.

Smith says hospitals will need to publish wait times under her plan.

The party says their latest promise will cost $180 million a year.