Treacherous turf

You could sense the opposition parties’ quivering delight Thursday as all parties stepped onto the treacherous turf of health care.

They’re thrilled because the PCS have everything to answer for; the lack of a full inquiry, new data on high costs for rural hospitals, the endless wait time drama, and so much more.

Many health-care workers are restive and unhappy with the government. Doctors are laying for the PCS the way cats sniff for mice.

And the tensions soon led to another Alberta campaign first — a head-on public duel between the PC leader and the Alberta Medical Association.

It began when Redford gamely announced a “new fast-track model” to help speed patients through crowded emergency wards. The ER doctors pounced. The idea isn’t new, they said. In Alberta hospitals, it’s 20 years old. Fast-track is worthwhile, but more of it won’t help now because what’s really needed is new capacity.

Last Dec. 10, Dr. Felix Soibelman, head of the Emergency Medicine Section of the AMA, sent a letter detailing those concerns to Health Minister Fred Horne.

The doctors say they heard no more of it — until Thursday, when Redford promised a fix they’d already insisted was neither new, nor useful.

“We were blown away that they would even release this,” says Dr. Paul Parks, another outspoken emergency ward doctor.

“We told them what we thought, that it wouldn’t help, and they ignored the front-line people again.”

That alone is enough to make for a bad campaign day. But the doctors were just getting started.

Dr. Linda Slocombe, president of the Alberta Medical Association, issued one of her regular letters the PCS now handle like unpleasant Halloween bags on the doorstep.

First, she said the AMA will continue its “advocacy” advertising drive despite a warning from the Electoral Office that the ads might be illegal during a campaign.

Taking a risk on $100,000 fines, the AMA insists the ads are not political, and therefore not illegal.

The docs have a point. The ads don’t mention any party or the election. They merely state the doctors’ viewpoint.

But the real eruption was still to come.

Later in her letter, Slocombe attacked as wasteful and damaging Redford’s plan to build 140 Family Care Clinics.

“Alberta should not be experimenting with an untried and unproven concept that could threaten the viability of the family doctor’s office,” she said.

“One simply cannot impose 140 new clinics on the existing system. Albertans don’t need another history lesson in how not to pursue change.”

To recall anything remotely like this, we have to go back to the 2008 campaign, when the Calgary Health Region issued a crisis call for cash.

Ed Stelmach’s PCS didn’t get publicly angry, but they did get even. Later, CEO Jack Davis was ousted. The CHR, and all the old regions, no longer exist.

This time, Redford responded to the AMA provocation within hours.

In a long public letter to Slocombe, Redford came close to suggesting the AMA misrepresents the idea behind Family Care Clinics.

“To imply there is no transition plan when the AMA is sitting on the evaluation team for the Family Care Clinics was very disappointing to me,” she wrote.

Redford says the government has collaborated and Primary Care Networks are an evolution of the primary care system.

The oddest note comes at the end, when Redford almost begs the AMA for a bit of political help.

“Perhaps in a future president’s letter you will address the potential disruption the Wildrose Alliance proposals will have on the Alberta’s health-care system,” Redford wrote.

Maybe Slocombe should. But for now, all the opposition parties can hardly stop grinning.