NDP Opposition Health Critic takes aim at UCP policies on private surgeries

In a preview of some upcoming provincial election rhetoric, Opposition Health Critic and Edmonton Centre MLA David Shepherd is claiming the NDP, if elected, would bring stability to the provincial public health-care system, and fund it properly to serve Albertans better.

“(Health care) is a problem we are facing across Canada,” stated Shepherd. “Jurisdictions around the world are facing real challenges that have been brought on by the pressures of the pandemic. And we have had some issues longstanding in the health-care system for some time which have been exacerbated by that. But we have (also) had a unique challenge here in Alberta with the kind of chaos brought on by the UCP government.”

In an interview last week, Shepherd took aim particularly at the Smith government’s Alberta Surgical Initiative, which is investing large amounts of public dollars into private health-care corporations to establish new day surgeries.

“It’s modelled on the failed Saskatchewan Surgical Initiative,” Shepherd stated. “Saskatchewan today has longer wait times than both Alberta and Ontario despite having pursued in the early 2010s a massive expansion of privately-provided, publicly-funded surgeries.

“We saw an initial reduction, but as soon as the government stopped subsidizing those surgeries, wait times shot back up. So now in Alberta, we have the UCP following the same failed model.”

Shepherd acknowledged that backlogs for surgeries are a major problem in Alberta.

“There is no question additional investment needs to be made on a significant level in order for us to be able to catch up on those backlogs,” he said. “The question is where should those investments be made?”

Shepherd said the NDP is also in favour of establishing more day surgeries in Alberta to help alleviate some of that surgical backlog, but sees no reason why the UCP should be giving public dollars to subsidize private corporations to do those surgeries.

“The idea is that you have a stand-alone surgical centre where you do low-acuity surgeries, so surgeries that are less complex where people don’t require a stay in hospital,” Shepherd explained. “Therefore you don’t have all the extra services and supports you would have in hospital is an effective model. It is cheaper, it is faster, and it is more efficient– and there is no reason it can’t be built and operated within the public system.”

Shepherd was asked why it mattered who was funded to do such surgeries as long as the bill doesn’t come to patients and people can get their surgeries done faster?

The Edmonton MLA acknowledged there was a frustration among Albertans about the state of their health-care system, and in particular because of wait times for surgeries, but said the reason the system is failing some Albertans is because 40 years of conservative governments, in his opinion, have failed the system.

“What we have here is conservative governments who underfunded surgeries for years,” he stated. “That was their choice. They experimented with private clinics that failed and cost the taxpayer more.”

Shepherd said the NDP was still in the process of putting together its election platform on health-care as they head into this spring’s provincial election. But he promised if they win, the party would properly fund public health care again, strive for a civil and collaborative relationship with doctors, nurses and other health-care providers, and restore stability in health care after years of COVID-induced chaos.