LAKELAND – The entire Alberta Health Services (AHS) board has been fired, with an administrator named as a replacement, according to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Health Minister Jason Copping during a Thursday announcement about health care reform.
According to Smith, the current process of Alberta’s health care system is not working fast enough and requires change. “Patients are waiting too long to access our health care system,” she said, despite the “excellent” work of doctors, nurses, paramedics, and other frontline staff.
Waiting time for Albertans is simply “too long.”
Albertans are also waiting “too long” for ambulances, emergency rooms, surgery, and appointments for physicians, said Smith, “and quite frankly, they can’t wait any longer.”
“We need a health care system that meets our growing demand and [must] take action to improve access,” she said, with guidance from Minister Copping and Dr. John Cowell.
Cowell is coming out of retirement to serve as the AHS administrator. His plans include reducing wait times in surgery and emergency rooms and improving the response time of ambulances, in addition to recruitment and retaining health care workers.
Cowell’s previous experience includes serving as the CEO of the Health Quality Council of Alberta, President and CEO of the Workers Compensation Board of Alberta, more than 30 years of experience as clinical professor at the University of Calgary, and previous experience as an official administrator for AHS.
Copping believes an administrator will be more effective than a board.
The AHS board was a part-time strategic board, according to Copping, and the administrator’s “dedicated full-time” role will help with “immediate and dynamic” responses.
Copping says the administrator position is a “temporary” fix to help “drive immediate changes,” and that the AHS board will be restored at an appropriate time.
When asked about plans to recruit and retain health care staff, and plans related to primary care, Copping said “this is part of our overall approach.”
“Primary care is an important part of our overall health care system... and we’ve been doing a lot of work on that already,” said Copping. “We got the agreement with the AMA (Alberta Medical Association) and we’re moving forward to implementing that – a big part of that was actually focused on primary care.”
In addition, Copping said Alberta’s primary care task force will also be modernized.
He said the world is dealing with staff shortages in health care, and “we’ve done a bunch of work to actually deal with human health resource challenges and there’s more to come.” Copping explained this also involves investment in additional seats for health care workers in post-secondary institutions.
Smith and Cowell promise reform
When asked about the expected progress of health care reform by the end of May, Smith said “it will be better than it is today,” before referring to Cowell for his thoughts.
Cowell said he could not provide “what the delta will precisely be” because there are “uncontrollable unknowns such as maybe [COVID-19] will rage on, and it’ll combine with influenza and RSV.”
“These are the uncontrollable that the system is going to have to react to whether it likes it or not,” while, at the same time, attempting to improve the health care system, said Cowell.
However, he promised, “there will be a difference.”
When asked how Smith’s promise of reform varies from previous politicians who also promised reforms, she said she is aligned with Smith and Copping “on what needs to be done.” There are “endless” reports to guide the provincial government on what needs to be done, “we just need the will to do it,” said Smith.
She reiterated, “we know what we want to do, and we know how to measure it,” adding, there are different performance measures including reducing surgery backlogs and wait times in emergency rooms, and ambulances stuck at emergency waiting areas.
“People will be able to see that, and they’ll judge us based on that performance,” said Smith. “If we’re not making sufficient progress fast enough, then we’ll be able to re-tool, get new ideas and keep going at it – we’re very keen on a database outcome.”
Budget
Copping also said the provincial government bumped the health care budget by $600 million this year and another $600 million next year, “and another $600 million after that.”
“And just for frame of reference, the funding to catch up on surgeries and managing COVID-19 is on top of that,” he said, explaining while there is no specific number, “that is our commitment that we have to Albertans as a government.”
He said he will be consulting with Cowell if more funding is necessary.
"We’re going to look for what the problem is first, define the problem, and then think about the money – I just can’t speak to it at this point,” said Cowell.
When asked about concerns that the constant changes in direction and meddling with AHS by the Premier could prevent meaningful changes to the health care system, Smith said, “I don’t want to be a barrier to the decisions he needs made.”
She said she and Copping will be available on a daily or weekly basis if needed, “so that we are not going to be the bottleneck in decision making.”
According to Smith, the change is not meant to be disruptive, but is meant to accelerate “things that we already know should be implemented.”
“The role that both Minister Copping and I will play is to be the two that can say ‘yes, go for it’,” when Cowell determines a course of action.
“We don’t want there to be any barriers,” says the Premier.
AUPE: Publicly delivered health care necessary
The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) released a statement on Nov. 17, expressing that Smith’s approach to fixing health care will fail if it does not invest in publicly delivered health care. AUPE says the newly appointed AHS administrator should invest in publicly delivered health care “or risk further destabilizing the system.”
AUPE President Guy Smith also suggests that when talking about possible solutions, that the provincial government seek the input of frontline workers, “who know what the real issues are and what should be done,” and reinforce “our existing public system.”
“Thousands of AUPE members work on the front lines of health care in this province,” said Guy. “They need support, security, and stability, not the chaos that could result from a change in administration and direction.”
Guy also “fears” the provincial government’s solutions to address the problems in health care will be used as excuses to limit available services and push privatization of health care.
“Privatization is not the antidote for what ails our health care system. If the new premier wants to help, she must start by investing in public health care for all, not just those who can pay thousands of dollars to jump the queue.”
According to information from AUPE, the union has 98,000 members, with over half working in health care services.
