Healthy skepticism

Tories have poor record of managing Alberta’s health-care system

The provincial government is doing yet another review on how to proceed on health care. This time around, it’s a look into rural health-care delivery.

Skeptical Albertans might believe this has more to do with the sagging poll numbers of the Progressive Conservatives outside big cities than any pressing need to probe yet again into a problem that has been reviewed, reported on and studied ad infinitum.

Sadly, that’s the reaction when a government has been in power for more than four decades, and despite review after review, spends more than any other province and gets only mediocre results.

New Health Minister Stephen Mandel is also wading into the chronic shortage of long-term care beds that generates exorbitant costs and increases wait times for patients in need of acute care.

While it is an important nut to crack, Mandel describes patients lingering in acute care beds while waiting for long-term care as “bedblockers.” If he is serious about leading a team of thousands of dedicated health-care providers, he should use more respectful terms about the Albertans who find themselves at the mercy of a health-care crunch his government has been unable to fix.

Dr. Paul Parks, spokesman for emergency medicine for the Alberta Medical Association, points out that although the government has acknowledged for years that a lack of community care spaces is the biggest bottleneck confronting the health-care system, the problem has only gotten worse.

A stay in an acute care bed costs several times more than a continuing care bed. Worse, there is evidence the continuing care backlog has an impact on the time Albertans wait for certain surgeries and emergency treatment.

When Mandel says, “I don’t think this is rocket science,” he is right on the money. So why has the Tory government, to which he soon hopes to be elected as an MLA, been unable to get a grip on such a fundamental problem?

Stephen Duckett, the controversial former CEO of Alberta Health Services, may have revealed the answer during a recent speech in Edmonton. Duckett pointed the finger at the 43-year-old Tory dynasty’s inclination to make health decisions based more on politics than sound policy. And he said Alberta’s resource wealth has provided little incentive to keep costs in line.

So when, and if, Mandel gets into office in a byelection, he might want to ask his fellow PC caucus members whether they are perhaps the real “bed blockers” in this scenario.

Mandel claims he has no plans for a dramatic makeover of the system, yet talks about providing more regional controls and finding ways to “flatten out” the bureaucracy at AHS. All admirable goals, but along with the decision to implement a new board, it sounds a lot like a shakeup — again.

Meanwhile, several years after the last major do-over, health-care providers are still struggling to adapt to the changes.

The focus should be on building more long-term care beds, not messing with the system while paying huge severances to high-priced administrators with every change.

To regain public confidence, this government must provide us with better results for the massive amount we’re spending on health care.