Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley says new documents show the UCP is forcing Alberta Health Services (AHS) to pilot a "wasteful and unnecessary scheme.".On Wednesday, Notley held a press conference in Calgary and said the UCP is planning to fly Alberta patients and surgeons to perform operations at a private facility in BC, over the objections of clinical leaders..The facility in question was Okanagan Health Surgical Centre in Kelowna, BC, in order to avoid interrupting the continuity of care before, during, and after the surgery..The UCP plan was to fly the Alberta patient and an Alberta surgeon to Kelowna for surgery and then back to Alberta..An email from the AHS VP and Medical Director dated December 5, said, "sending patients out of province is likely to be poorly received by surgeons and AHS surgical staff.".Also in December of 2021, AHS Vice-President Sid Viner wrote to his colleagues that the “government has directed AHS to pilot using an out-of-province chartered surgical facility. [It's] important to recognize this will be a pilot, and is in addition to, not instead of, maximizing use of all possible capacity within Alberta. [It's] important to keep this in mind, as I realize most staff and surgeons will wonder why this is being pursued."."Again, this is direction from government so we need to pilot [it] without it causing loss of focus or any disruption to maximizing the surgery we will do in Alberta.” .Said Notley: "The UCP's plan is foolish and wasteful.".Documents obtained by the NDP through a Freedom of Information Act request contain over 400 pages. Notley said these documents show "the lengths the UCP will go to privatize public healthcare.".According to the documents, the NDP said Viner’s emails show that AHS clinical leaders were staunchly opposed to the plan..By late January 2022, Viner emailed one of the surgeons who had reluctantly agreed to take part, “Despite our best efforts to change their views, government is still intent on at least piloting having Albertans have surgeries out-of-province.”.“This is controversial and not well supported by clinicians,” Viner wrote..“Not surprisingly, feedback on doing surgery at an out-of-province chartered surgical facility was universally negative.”.Notley said: "Albertans can not trust the UCP with their healthcare and hard earned tax dollars.".“This UCP plan won’t increase Alberta’s surgical capacity, it simply moves the surgeon into a different building after piling on new costs for travel and the use of this private facility, if this is a pilot, what is the UCP’s end goal? We know it would cost more and compromise care, while distracting from efforts to repair our own system.".“I am extremely concerned to learn of this secret plan while we can see the UCP sabotaging the Alberta public healthcare system.".In early February, the NDP said AHS leadership was discussing how Premier Jason Kenney himself should announce this pilot and take ownership of it.."These conversations intensified when media in the Okanagan got wind of the plan. But instead of announcing their pilot, Jason Copping’s press secretary lied to the BC media," the NDP said..On the morning of February 11, an AHS contracting director wrote an email that said: “just received an email from Okanagan, they are good with our contract template and we are expecting costing this weekend that we can review early next week … so we should be ready to go soon.”.Literally the same day, Copping’s press secretary wrote back to BC media and said, “Hi Colin, we’re not in negotiations with any clinic. We’ve made some preliminary inquiries as part of contingency planning, depending on what capacity could be available and how fast we can ramp up our own surgical capacity [...] in the coming weeks.”.Notley said it seems clear that Jason Copping and the UCP want to normalize flying Albertans out of province, and potentially out of the country, to get the care they need, instead of rebuilding our public healthcare system..“I commit to Albertans that an NDP government will end the UCP wasteful experiments in airport healthcare and instead strengthen the public system we all rely on,” Notley said..The Western Standard has reached out to Copping but so far hasn't heard back.
Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley says new documents show the UCP is forcing Alberta Health Services (AHS) to pilot a "wasteful and unnecessary scheme.".On Wednesday, Notley held a press conference in Calgary and said the UCP is planning to fly Alberta patients and surgeons to perform operations at a private facility in BC, over the objections of clinical leaders..The facility in question was Okanagan Health Surgical Centre in Kelowna, BC, in order to avoid interrupting the continuity of care before, during, and after the surgery..The UCP plan was to fly the Alberta patient and an Alberta surgeon to Kelowna for surgery and then back to Alberta..An email from the AHS VP and Medical Director dated December 5, said, "sending patients out of province is likely to be poorly received by surgeons and AHS surgical staff.".Also in December of 2021, AHS Vice-President Sid Viner wrote to his colleagues that the “government has directed AHS to pilot using an out-of-province chartered surgical facility. [It's] important to recognize this will be a pilot, and is in addition to, not instead of, maximizing use of all possible capacity within Alberta. [It's] important to keep this in mind, as I realize most staff and surgeons will wonder why this is being pursued."."Again, this is direction from government so we need to pilot [it] without it causing loss of focus or any disruption to maximizing the surgery we will do in Alberta.” .Said Notley: "The UCP's plan is foolish and wasteful.".Documents obtained by the NDP through a Freedom of Information Act request contain over 400 pages. Notley said these documents show "the lengths the UCP will go to privatize public healthcare.".According to the documents, the NDP said Viner’s emails show that AHS clinical leaders were staunchly opposed to the plan..By late January 2022, Viner emailed one of the surgeons who had reluctantly agreed to take part, “Despite our best efforts to change their views, government is still intent on at least piloting having Albertans have surgeries out-of-province.”.“This is controversial and not well supported by clinicians,” Viner wrote..“Not surprisingly, feedback on doing surgery at an out-of-province chartered surgical facility was universally negative.”.Notley said: "Albertans can not trust the UCP with their healthcare and hard earned tax dollars.".“This UCP plan won’t increase Alberta’s surgical capacity, it simply moves the surgeon into a different building after piling on new costs for travel and the use of this private facility, if this is a pilot, what is the UCP’s end goal? We know it would cost more and compromise care, while distracting from efforts to repair our own system.".“I am extremely concerned to learn of this secret plan while we can see the UCP sabotaging the Alberta public healthcare system.".In early February, the NDP said AHS leadership was discussing how Premier Jason Kenney himself should announce this pilot and take ownership of it.."These conversations intensified when media in the Okanagan got wind of the plan. But instead of announcing their pilot, Jason Copping’s press secretary lied to the BC media," the NDP said..On the morning of February 11, an AHS contracting director wrote an email that said: “just received an email from Okanagan, they are good with our contract template and we are expecting costing this weekend that we can review early next week … so we should be ready to go soon.”.Literally the same day, Copping’s press secretary wrote back to BC media and said, “Hi Colin, we’re not in negotiations with any clinic. We’ve made some preliminary inquiries as part of contingency planning, depending on what capacity could be available and how fast we can ramp up our own surgical capacity [...] in the coming weeks.”.Notley said it seems clear that Jason Copping and the UCP want to normalize flying Albertans out of province, and potentially out of the country, to get the care they need, instead of rebuilding our public healthcare system..“I commit to Albertans that an NDP government will end the UCP wasteful experiments in airport healthcare and instead strengthen the public system we all rely on,” Notley said..The Western Standard has reached out to Copping but so far hasn't heard back.
