No hospital wait for 'buddies' of Alta. politicians: doctor
CBC News Posted: Jun 7, 2011 2:08 PM ET Last Updated: Jun 7, 2011 4:37 PM ET Read 50 comments50 Back to accessibility links
Duckett alerted health VPs about queue-jumping: memo
'Go-to guys' helped queue jumpers: former health boss
End of Supporting Story ContentBack to accessibility links Beginning of Story ContentIf a well-known person showed up in an emergency room, a hospital executive would request they were 'looked after,' said Alberta MLA Dr. Raj Sherman. CBC
An emergency room doctor says "buddies" of Alberta politicians received preferential medical treatment while other patients were left waiting.

Dr. Raj Sherman said Tuesday he personally experienced requests from hospital executives for certain patients to get preferential treatment.

"It was a practice that was common, that we regularly saw on the front lines. Where certain members of society got in the back door while others had to wait," he said. "Certain people got to jump the queue regularly."

Sherman is a former Alberta Progressive Conservative MLA who is now an indpendent MLA.

CBC News first reported Monday that former Alberta Health Services president Stephen Duckett claimed in a recent speech he put an end to "go-to guys" who would adjust waiting lists at the request of MLAs.

On Monday night, Alberta Health Services (AHS) released a 2009 memo from Duckett to health officials that condemned the practice.

Unfair to waiting patients, says doctor
Sherman says he can't talk about specific cases, but no one in critical condition was ever denied treatment because a queue jumper was getting medical help.

A government-relations person used to report directly to the head of Capital Health, the now defunct Edmonton-area health region, Sherman said.

"The good thing about that is if constituents had difficulty accessing the system, they would get looked after. But the unfair thing about that, was all the MLAs' buddies, that's how they got in."

The practice became "much more difficult" once the regional health authorities were dissolved to create the Alberta Health Service's superboard, he said.

David Eggen, who speaks for the lobby group Friends of Medicare, said the allegations are very serious and illegal. He is calling on police and federal health officials to investigate.

"In the eyes of most Albertans, especially someone who was behind that other person in the queue, I mean it's simply appalling," he said.
Alberta NDP Leader Brian Mason, Alberta Wildrose Alliance leader Danielle Smith and Liberal leader David Swann are all calling for a public inquiry into the issue.

Memo details queue jumping
The 2009 memo from Duckett was forwarded to senior vice-presidents and presidents in charge of all the province's hospitals, the zone vice-presidents, the cancer corridor vice-president and a chief of staff for the AHS board.

An attached policy document, prepared by senior physician executive D.W. Megran, defines "prominent individuals" as politicians and other government officials, philanthropists who have donated to AHS or its foundations, AHS board directors and executives as well as those who are "prominent in local or provincial society or business."

"Providing preferential and/or expedited care based on societal status or personal relationship to health care executive or officials [creates] a conflict-of-interest for the organization and an ethical dilemma for the health-care executive or official receiving a request to do so," the memo states.

"This type of treatment "represents 'queue-jumping,' a practice that a public health-care organization cannot defend or support."

The memo says the practice creates delays for those who need care and "implies that not all individuals in society are considered 'equal' or are entitled to equal treatment."

Alberta Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky hasn't commented on the issue since the release of the memo, but said earlier Monday he hadn't see any "proof to any of these kinds of allegations."

Anyone with proof should take it to the Health Quality Council of Alberta, which studies health care in the province.

Duckett, a former senior health executive from Australia, was the president and CEO of Alberta Health Services for nearly two years, but was fired. He now teaches at the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta.