Please Mr. Please, don't play B 17!

Zwozdesky introduces Alberta’s first Health Act

Bill 17 passes first reading

By Karen Kleiss, edmontonjournal.com October 28, 2010 8:42 PM Comments (4)
StoryPhotos ( 2 )

More Images » Dr. Paul Parks, left, the ER doctor whose letter sparked fierce concern about the state of Alberta's emergency departments, with Alberta health minister Gene Zwozdesky during a newsconference in Edmonton Wednesday, October 27, 2010.Photograph by: Chris Schwarz, edmontonjournal.comKAREN KLEISS and KEITH GEREIN

EDMONTON — The Conservative government introduced its long-awaited Alberta Health Act on Thursday, hailing it as a “historic” step toward building the best health system.

But critics say the act could open the door to private health care and does nothing to address the ongoing crisis in the province’s emergency rooms.

If passed, Bill 17 will create a health charter that outlines what Albertans can expect from the system and will install an advocate to resolve patient complaints. It passed first reading Thursday and will be debated in the legislature in coming weeks.

“Bill 17 is part of our ongoing efforts to help build the best-performing, publicly funded health system in Canada,” Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky said.

“It not about privatization. It is also not about revamping some of the major existing legislation pieces that we have in Alberta at this time.”

The proposed Alberta Health Act contains five ideas new to Albertans:

Health charter: A high-level set of principles for all health institutions, facility operators and “health providers” in the province. It is a charter of goals and expectations, not a charter of rights, and it can’t be used as the basis for legal claims.

Health advocate: Reviews complaints made under the charter and has the power to recommend changes. If a health provider fails to implement the recommendations, the advocate can write a report to the minister. It is up to the minister to decide whether the report will be made public.

Health providers: The minister can pass a regulation designating “other persons” as health providers who are subject to the charter. For example: massage therapists, medical device providers and health care aides who provide support services for the sick, elderly and disabled. The idea is that the charter will apply to all who have a hand in keeping Albertans healthy, not just doctors.

Penalties: The Lieutenant Governor in Council can set penalties for breaching regulations, such as failing to comply with the advocate’s request for information during a review.

Public consultation: The minister must give the public 30 days to comment on new regulations before they become law.

Opposition parties and critics were divided in their assessments of the bill, in part, they said, because the legislation is so vague.

Much of the controversy centred around the section that allows the health minister to designate “other persons as health providers.”

Despite strong denials from Zwozdesky, questions were raised about whether such wording could be used by the government to quietly push more private operators into the health system.

“I think the potential is there to deputize private providers to allow for more private contracting, and potentially encourage a race to use less qualified personnel to do certain procedures,” said David Eggen of the advocacy group Friends of Medicare.

Eggen said he fears the act’s “enabling” structure means the minister can dismantle existing health legislation behind closed doors rather than debating such changes in the legislature.But NDP Leader Brian Mason said the proposed act was more useless than dangerous.

“I don’t think it’s the insidious Trojan horse we expected it to be,” he said. “The act is set up to create a charter that’s not enforceable in the courts. It’s set up to create a health advocate, who you can complain to and then he can issue reports, and then if the minister wants to do something about it, he can. But that’s all this act is.”

Mason said he thinks the “other persons” referred to in the act does not mean private operators, but people who practice alternative or emerging forms of medicine that may need to be brought into the official health system one day.

Liberal Leader David Swann said it was hard to judge the legislation until the Conservatives come forward with more information about their plans for the health advocate, health charter and procedure for making changes to the system. “The devil is in the details,” he said.

All opposition leaders agreed the health act was an attempt to deflect attention from current problems in the system, including overcrowding and long wait times in hospital emergency rooms.

“In my mind, it’s a diversionary piece of legislation trying to distract our attention from real issues they are failing to grapple with,” Mason said.

Zwozdesky has responded to the emergency room issue by calling for new wait-time targets. He said patients should wait no longer than four hours from the time they arrive at emergency to the time they are treated and discharged, while patients needing to be admitted should wait no longer than eight hours before getting a bed.

Asked if he would enshrine these benchmarks in the yet-to-be written health charter, Zwozdesky was non-committal.

Swann, however, suggested it should be considered.

“That’s a very interesting idea. Without firm teeth, I don’t think the government is going to change anything.”

kkleiss@edmontonjournal.com

kgerein@edmontonjournal.com

© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal