Budget Chaos strikes again

There are number of things to learn from this story in today's Calgary Herald. For one, chaos reigns as the dissolution of the regional health authorities was poorly thought out. Second, the whole business of contracting out to private clinics is a huge waste of money and filled with bureaucratic confusion. Third, Alberta Health seems willing to play games with people's health in order to spin their message that they are "tightening their belts".

Private delivery of public health services leads to two tier health care that most Albertans can't afford. Waits get longer. It costs more. We lose control of regulation of care and how the money is being spent.

Calgary patients are facing growing waiting lists for procedures like cataract removal after health officials acknowledged Thursday most private surgical clinics in the city have run out of public funding for the winter.
Surgeons at the clinics, who perform 13,000 elective procedures annually under contract with Calgary's public medical system, have already met their quota and won't be performing more operations until a new bud-get comes into effect this April.
In past years, the former Calgary Health Region allowed clinics to continue performing operations after meeting their quota, effectively running over the allotted budget in an attempt to address long surgical waiting lists.
This year, however, the new medical superboard won't pay for any additional surgeries because it's facing a $1.3 billion operating and capital deficit.
"There were past practices of allowing cost overruns to serve more patients,"said Mark Kastner, a spokesman for Alberta Health Services, the organization that took over the delivery of medical care from former health regions.
"There is more fiscal accountability now."
Doctors and health officials said many elective operations won't be performed over the next month and a half until the new budget comes into effect, including podiatry, oral, facial, cataract and other eye operations.
Dr. Robert Mitchell, an ophthalmologist who owns Mitchell Eye Centre, said the situation will increase waiting lists for patients.
At Mitchell's clinic, for example, the waiting list for cataract surgery is now about 12 months, while a year ago, there was no delay.
"Our first duty is to the patient," said Mitchell. "But we're in a system where there are no (more) funds."
Calgary area hospitals contract out all cataract surgeries, about 8,500 this year, and a variety of other procedures to private clinics.
Groups like the Calgary and Area Physicians Association said the situation facing private clinics and their patients reflects the budget crunch at the superboard.
All emergency surgeries will continue as necessary.
"It's a concern,"said Dr.Linda Slocombe, president of the association.
"It shows how tight the budgets are, and down the road you'd be concerned you might not be able to service all those needing elective surgeries."
Friends of Medicare said Thursday that Calgary's policy of contracting out to private clinics isn't working.
"It's an indication that when the chips are down, the private surgeries don't come through,"said Dave Eggen, executive director of the organization.
Cataract removal is one of five priority procedures for Alberta, and the province has pledged to cut waiting times for the surgery.
The government's wait time target for cataract surgery is 16 weeks, but most patients are now waiting 25 weeks for the procedure, according to Alberta Health's wait-list registry.
Health Minister Ron Liepert was not available for comment Thursday.
mlang@tHeHerald. Canwest.Com
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