ANY EXCUSE TO PRIVATIZE AHS
Author of the article:
By Dr. Paul Parks and Dr. Jon Meddings,
Calgary Herald
Published Nov 15, 2024
Published Nov 15, 2024
Health Minister Adriana LaGrange and Premier Danielle Smith outline how the province plans to refocus the health-care system. Photo by David Bloom /Postmedia Network
Last week brought news from Premier Danielle Smith that this province could again be facing deficits. “It is a serious problem,” she said. “We have a number of different pressures coming our way. And we have to be honest with people about what we’re facing.”
Let’s start with an honest conversation about the expensive choices her government is making.
Alberta’s health-care system is facing crushing demand — fuelled in part by record population growth but exacerbated by inflation, patient complexity and increasing acuity. Management will never admit it, but it’s an open secret within AHS that every program has a budget reduction target and it is often their forced efforts to try to curb spending that result in reduced services and longer wait times for patients. Those results in turn fuel government’s criticism of their (for now) single, integrated health-care system, in a way that is oddly divorced from their own decisions about the budget for front-line health-care delivery. It is a vicious circle.
The premier aligns herself with ardent critics of AHS. This narrative debases the province’s 110,000 health-care workers and physicians by suggesting we are simply obstacles to the administration of ivermectin to cure cancer. The new Bill of Rights further erodes trust in the health-care system by presuming to fix problems that do not and have never existed.
What emerges is a rationale to turn AHS over to Covenant (a Catholic health-care provider) along with any other interested private operators. The premier frequently advocates for more private surgical facilities. Meanwhile, the health minister has provided financial support for a private, primary and urgent-care facility in Airdrie. This is no doubt a sign of things to come if the lobby registry is any indication.
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All of this is in the context of the ongoing work to break up AHS into four new corporations, where one new CEO has already been appointed and more are soon to be named — from a government that never tires of complaining about the “administrative layers” at AHS.
So, how is the government “fixing” AHS? Adding administrative costs to the health-care system, hiring legions of consultants to give advice, paying more executive salaries, hiring more bureaucrats by redirecting funds from the front lines, and bringing in private operators without any information about who they are or how much they will be paid. Are these, perhaps, the “different pressures” coming Smith’s way?
Reasonable solutions have been provided. Solutions focusing on essential issues such as co-ordinated workforce planning, on stabilizing and bolstering primary and hospital-based care, and on addressing critical capacity building for an unprecedented aging and growing population. How long can government continue to ignore physician input, and yet still distance itself from the worsening health-care outcomes Albertans are experiencing?
Some take glee in criticizing the government for its failed experiment in the importation of children’s pain medication. Unfortunately, the reality is that sole-sourced contracts with unproven operators, at prices that are not always transparent, is simply not the way to be “honest with people about what’s coming.”
When asked about the budget for her new primary care organization, Health Minister Adriana LaGrange appeared stumped. This is not the hallmark of a government that is carefully managing taxpayer funds. It’s hard not to agree with economist Trevor Tombe who, when he was asked about the news of deficits, reportedly said: “It is Premier Smith’s decisions that led us to this degree of exposure.”
Given the fact that health-care access continues to deteriorate for all Albertans, here’s some ideas for Smith. Learn from your mistakes. Stop being distracted by bright and shiny ideas from private players who have one goal — to pull profits from the taxpayer-funded budget for health care.
Article content
Instead, support the lean but extremely capable health-care system you already have in place. Listen to experts. Act on the excellent solutions provided.
Dr. Paul Parks, past president, Alberta Medical Association
Dr. Jon Meddings, past dean, Cumming School of Medicine
Last week brought news from Premier Danielle Smith that this province could again be facing deficits. “It is a serious problem,” she said. “We have a number of different pressures coming our way. And we have to be honest with people about what we’re facing.”
Let’s start with an honest conversation about the expensive choices her government is making.
Alberta’s health-care system is facing crushing demand — fuelled in part by record population growth but exacerbated by inflation, patient complexity and increasing acuity. Management will never admit it, but it’s an open secret within AHS that every program has a budget reduction target and it is often their forced efforts to try to curb spending that result in reduced services and longer wait times for patients. Those results in turn fuel government’s criticism of their (for now) single, integrated health-care system, in a way that is oddly divorced from their own decisions about the budget for front-line health-care delivery. It is a vicious circle.
The premier aligns herself with ardent critics of AHS. This narrative debases the province’s 110,000 health-care workers and physicians by suggesting we are simply obstacles to the administration of ivermectin to cure cancer. The new Bill of Rights further erodes trust in the health-care system by presuming to fix problems that do not and have never existed.
What emerges is a rationale to turn AHS over to Covenant (a Catholic health-care provider) along with any other interested private operators. The premier frequently advocates for more private surgical facilities. Meanwhile, the health minister has provided financial support for a private, primary and urgent-care facility in Airdrie. This is no doubt a sign of things to come if the lobby registry is any indication.
Article content
All of this is in the context of the ongoing work to break up AHS into four new corporations, where one new CEO has already been appointed and more are soon to be named — from a government that never tires of complaining about the “administrative layers” at AHS.
So, how is the government “fixing” AHS? Adding administrative costs to the health-care system, hiring legions of consultants to give advice, paying more executive salaries, hiring more bureaucrats by redirecting funds from the front lines, and bringing in private operators without any information about who they are or how much they will be paid. Are these, perhaps, the “different pressures” coming Smith’s way?
Reasonable solutions have been provided. Solutions focusing on essential issues such as co-ordinated workforce planning, on stabilizing and bolstering primary and hospital-based care, and on addressing critical capacity building for an unprecedented aging and growing population. How long can government continue to ignore physician input, and yet still distance itself from the worsening health-care outcomes Albertans are experiencing?
Some take glee in criticizing the government for its failed experiment in the importation of children’s pain medication. Unfortunately, the reality is that sole-sourced contracts with unproven operators, at prices that are not always transparent, is simply not the way to be “honest with people about what’s coming.”
When asked about the budget for her new primary care organization, Health Minister Adriana LaGrange appeared stumped. This is not the hallmark of a government that is carefully managing taxpayer funds. It’s hard not to agree with economist Trevor Tombe who, when he was asked about the news of deficits, reportedly said: “It is Premier Smith’s decisions that led us to this degree of exposure.”
Given the fact that health-care access continues to deteriorate for all Albertans, here’s some ideas for Smith. Learn from your mistakes. Stop being distracted by bright and shiny ideas from private players who have one goal — to pull profits from the taxpayer-funded budget for health care.
Article content
Instead, support the lean but extremely capable health-care system you already have in place. Listen to experts. Act on the excellent solutions provided.
Dr. Paul Parks, past president, Alberta Medical Association
Dr. Jon Meddings, past dean, Cumming School of Medicine
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