The province should stop downloading budget woes onto patients and focus on improving the health care system through performance targets, said the president of the Alberta Medical Association.
In a letter to association members last week, Dr. Noel Grisdale wrote that the province should cover the short-term budget problems of Alberta Health Services (AHS) in exchange for a comprehensive plan to achieve long-term savings.
“This is a much better alternative to downloading the AHS budget woes onto Albertans. Our patients are the wrong place to try and achieve savings!” the letter states.
The letter went out Friday in the wake of news that 15 per cent of elective surgeries would be cut at the Royal Alexandra Hospital. The hospital is trying to hold its spending to 2008 levels, as required by AHS. Grisdale expects the surgery cuts to spread to other hospitals across the province and also wrote that uncertainty about operating budgets is negatively impacting recruitment of doctors and nurses.
AHS’s new CEO Stephen Duckett deserves a clean slate like the health regions got last year when the province wiped out their operating deficits after forming the superboard, Grisdale wrote.
The province recruited Duckett from Australia in February to be CEO under the AHS board.
“A common sentiment among physicians is that Alberta Health Services was ineffective during its first nine months in pursuing the government’s vision and expectations of operational efficiencies,” the letter states. “The irony: there was unprecedented change but nothing happened!”
Duckett is working on a plan but in the meantime AHS has to decide how to best spend its budget, said Alberta Health and Wellness spokesman John Tuckwell.
“That plan is in development; we’re working with Alberta Health Services,” Tuckwell said. “But ultimately, the budget has been set for the current year. Alberta Health Services does have to make some decisions around priorities.”
AHS is facing a $500-million deficit despite receiving a seven per cent funding increase in this year’s budget. This puts Duckett in an unfair position given that he’s just taken over, Grisdale said. While AHS grapples with its finances it’s the patients who suffer.
“Things aren’t going to get any better in Alberta if we’re making people wait any longer,” Grisdale said.
St. Albert MLA Ken Allred agreed Duckett needs a chance to improve the system.
“I would certainly support that. I think he’s bringing a new perspective to the scene and that’s good,” Allred said. “I don’t think he should be saddled with any of the previous problems.”
Recent events like the cancellation of surgeries at the Royal Alex show that the financial troubles of the former health regions are being downloaded to hospitals, said David Eggen of Friends of Medicare. The fact that doctors are openly complaining is evidence that the province isn’t consulting them.
“I was surprised that the doctors are not in the loop,” Eggen said. “That’s just like playing with fire because so much of our health system moves through the doctors.”
The AMA letter is posted at albertadoctors.org.
