After it defied a government order asking it to consider not approving $3.2 million in bonuses to Alberta Health Services (AHS) executives, provincial Health Minister Fred Horne terminated the 10-member AHS board.
Horne issued a directive to the board on June 11 asking it to reconsider awarding the bonuses since many workers in the province such as doctors and teachers are currently accepting wage freezes.
The board decided to approve the bonuses anyway stating they were part of previously agreed-upon contracts and on June 12, Horne fired the board.
“When they chose to ignore that directive, then it started, potentially, to become an issue of public confidence and certainly from a government perspective, a board that is not willing to comply with that sort of legal authority, that's not a tenable position to be in,” Horne said in a telephone interview with the Mountain View Gazette on June 12.
“Albertans have been clear, especially now during a time when we're seeing doctors and other people taking wage freezes and cutbacks in grants to not-for-profit agencies that deliver services, they are not comfortable with this at all. It is not a practice that will continue in Alberta.”
He added he “certainly had some challenges” with the board in the past, saying he had issued six directives to the board since becoming health minister.
Some of the more than 100 AHS executives in line to receive “pay-at-risk” bonuses, which Horne defined as where an additional sum of pay for an individual is held back pending the achievement of certain results, had declined the bonuses.
The board, however, did not comply with those executives' wishes, Horne said.
“It greatly concerned me when I found out at the end of last week that a number of the staff had offered to forego their bonus. Actually not just offered, they had asked not to receive it,” he said.
An AHS spokesman deferred requests for comment to the health minister or board chair Stephen Lockwood, who did not respond to the Gazette's request for comment.
Dr. Chris Eagle, AHS's president and chief executive officer, did send a message to local health advisory councils about the board's termination.
“Governance questions are for others to discuss and address,” Eagle wrote. “Our patients and their families meanwhile expect and need us to remain focused on their health and well-being. What's most important to them is what they need from us today. Let's make sure our patients know that. They're counting on us.
“I'm confident that the longer-term work underway in creating a sustainable health system will continue. The reasons why we set the course outlined in the Health Plan are no less urgent. My personal commitment is unchanged.”
On the same day the board's termination was made public, Horne also announced that Janet Davidson, a woman with more than 30 years of health-care experience in Alberta and abroad, would act as AHS's official administrator to replace the board.
She will report directly to Horne and is tasked with investigating pay-at-risk compensation within AHS as well as the structure and governance of health care in province.
Horne said Davidson is a nurse by training and she resigned from her position at KPMG Canada, a firm that provides audit, tax and advisory services, at the time of the board's termination.
She has worked as Alberta's assistant deputy minister of health and has helped run several hospitals in Alberta and Ontario.
In 2006 she was named an Officer of the Order of Canada.
“She's someone that brings with her a good knowledge of Alberta but also a good knowledge of what's done elsewhere,” Horne said. “She has relationships here, she has roots here and I know she's really looking forward to returning to Alberta.”
As for the future of the board, Horne said the government will look at the “structure for health care in Alberta” and possibly consider “modifications to what we have now.”
“We haven't made that decision yet. The official administrator is not intended as a permanent appointment,” he said.
Horne added he wants to use this time to consult with Alberta residents and doctors about how to move forward with health care in the province.
“We're not looking to completely revamp everything about health-care delivery,” he said. “We do want to take the opportunity to talk to people and see what some of the opportunities are for improvement.”
Opposition parties pointed out in several media releases this is the second time in three years the board has broken down and called for Horne to take responsibility for the problems within AHS.
