MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY – Responding to the recent $2-million review of Alberta Health Services (AHS) and its recommendations calling for changes, Minister of Environment and Parks and area MLA Jason Nixon says rural Albertans should not be concerned about the future of health care going forward.
“I think it is important to be clear that the Alberta government is 100 per cent committed to fully funding health-care,” said Nixon. “The health minister has been clear that whatever efficiencies he does find he will then take that money and immediately reinvest it in front-line health care.”
David Shepherd, NDP Opposition critic for health, says the report “lays the groundwork for wage cuts, job losses, Americanization and cuts to rural services” by the Kenney government.
“This review presumes the outcome of collective bargaining and physician agreement negotiations that are still underway. It’s clear that this government plans to find savings by laying off Alberta health-care professionals or cutting their pay, particularly in rural areas. This will hurt patient care.”
The review was conducted by Ernst & Young and makes recommendations regarding clinical services, non-clinical services, governance and employment, including the following:
• Consider reconfiguration of small/medium community sites based on the validated and agreed access guidelines. AHS should work closely with community in configuring hospital and emergency departments appropriately, with no closures.
• Work with unions and government to remove or revise collective agreement provisions that impede sustainability without providing any patient benefit.
• Optimize staffing levels and skill mix across the organization in both nursing and clinical support services through the use of evidence-based approaches.
• Develop a consistent framework for paying physicians' interpretation fees by aligning payments to 50 per cent of the schedule of medical benefits rate as proposed by AHS.
United Nurses of Alberta president Heather Smith said she believes the Kenney government hopes to use the review as a tool to “take Alberta down a road to substantial health-care privatization” in the coming months.
UNA member nurses conducted information sessions across the province, including in Olds, on Feb. 13 saying the government is planning large cutbacks in health-care staffing.
Nixon responds: “Our government respects our front-line health-care workers and we recognize they are an important part of the system. We will be negotiating to try to make sure that we protect front-line services and we know that nurses are an important part of that going forward.
“The process needs to see itself and we will see what the results are in the coming weeks. Ultimately our goal will be to protect front-line nurses’ jobs while protecting front-line health care.”
The review’s mandate was to investigate opportunities to reduce costs and improve performance by examining AHS’s structure and organization, evaluate AHS programs, services and policies, he said.
