De-centralize in time

Disbanding Alberta Health Services’ super-board would be disruptive but decisions on how the province’s medical system is run should be made more locally, say health advocates.

Opposition parties have called for a return to regional health authorities, a move Friends of Medicare president David Eggen feels would throw the province’s health system further into chaos.

“We just went through a huge restructuring two years ago,” he said.

“I think we have to take a step back before we just decide to turn it all upside down again — it just seems like an incredible waste of money.”

Instead, Eggen said decision-making authority should slowly be transferred to front-line workers with specific expertise.

“There’s important decisions to be made and maybe the super-board structure is not the best but we have to think twice before (disbanding it),” he said.

“That’s part of why we’ve had so many problems with our health system in the last 10 years — we’ve gone from hundreds of hospital boards to regional boards to nine regional boards to one super-board.

“That kind of change over time is destabilizing.”

The Alberta Medical Association doesn’t have a position on the super-board’s future, said president, Dr. Patrick White, but he agrees decisions need to be done more at the local level.

“We’ve got over 10,000 members and did a survey of the membership a few months ago and only 20 percent of the (doctors) feel they have been involved (in decision making),” he said.

“That’s an alarming figure.”