Alberta going under the knife?
Written by Lethbridge Herald & Canadian Press
Thursday, September 16 2010, 9:55 PM

A proposed overhaul of Alberta’s health-care legislation could include a charter and an advocate to enforce it.
Conservative MLA Fred Horne, who led the team that listened to over 1,000 Albertans in workshops earlier this year, says the charter would recognize the patient as the priority.
But Friends of Medicare, the health system’s non-profit watchdog, predicts no substantive changes will be made in the short term. But after the next provincial election, a spokesperson warns, the government may use the report to justify changes in legislation which could lead to private, U.S.-style medical services.
“What we’re seeing here is another attempt at introducing private health care,” said Shannon Phillips, speaking for the group in Lethbridge.
That’s why the report calls for new legislation cancelling all of Alberta’s existing health-care laws, she suggested.
“It recognizes that amalgamating all the existing legislation may lead to private delivery,” she said after the report was released.
The outcome, she said, could be much the same as former premier Ralph Klein’s “third way” route, previously rejected by Albertans. Now as then, that could hurt Albertans outside the two major cities.
It was rural MLAs who put a stop to Klein’s scheme, she added.
“It wasn’t good then, and it isn’t good now.”
What the report doesn’t reflect, the group notes, is Albertans’ urgent needs for more long-term care, for comprehensive pharmacy coverage, or for more family doctors.
Those needs — and such concerns as the loss of local leadership, after all health regions were dissolved — were voiced during hearings earlier this year in Lethbridge and communities across the province.
Friends of Medicare, seniors’ groups and others raised a range of issues when Horne and his panel visited the city.
Speaking in Edmonton, Friends of Medicare executive David Eggen said appointing an advocate — if the health minister accepts the recommendation — would be a positive step. But little will be done with the report this year, he predicted.
“I think this government is nervous about health care,” he said. “It’s buying time.”
Releasing the report quickly, before the legislature sits in late October, is part of that strategy.
“It makes it look like they’re doing something.”
Writing a charter, Horne said, could put more priority on patients’ needs and less on the issues facing the system. Too often, he said, the focus has been on budgets and the needs of professionals.
“We don’t talk a lot about the needs of the people and the purpose of the system being there to meet their needs.”
Horne said the advocate, who would report to the health minister, would be needed to ensure the charter had some teeth.
“That’s exactly the point Albertans brought up, so we recommended the health advocate have responsibility for the charter. And that role would be to help people, to help point them in the right direction (and) to have their concerns addressed.
The proposals are among 15 that were outlined by Horne. Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky will review them and advise next month which ones he’ll adopt.
The proposed charter, said Horne, would not be used to limit access to care. It would instead promise that all Albertans would have the right to primary care, such as a family doctor. It would also provide mechanisms for people to have their concerns recognized and resolved.
The charter would not be subject to court litigation.
Horne and his eight-member advisory committee heard from 1,300 people across the province over four months. There were also 1,500 web-based surveys and written submissions from more than 80 organizations.
Guy Smith, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, said he’s optimistic an overhauled health act would enshrine publicly funded and delivered health care. But the devil will be in the details, he warned.
“We really need to proceed with caution about implementing the recommendations of this report,” Smith said in a news release. “Our goal should be to preserve and improve our quality public health-care system, not to provide justifications for introducing more private care.”
Smith’s union is the largest in Alberta at 70,000 members. Most work in health care.
Opposition Liberal Leader David Swann said he respects the work of the committee and those who responded with ideas, but the exercise simply affirmed what everyone already knew.
“As far as I can see, this government continues to dodge and divert and ask for more consultation, not really listening to what many of the experts are saying,” he said.
“It’s time for better management. It’s time for a longer-term commitment to publicly funded, publicly delivered health care.”