Health reform on agenda for MLAs' fall sitting

With Alberta's fall legislature session set to begin, opposition politicians say it's time to realize Premier Ed Stelmach's government will not solve health care problems.

"It's clearly a government that's out of ideas, that's tired and doesn't connect very well with the public," NDP Leader Brian Mason said.

"We're going to be bringing forward some specific proposals with respect to where the province ought to go with health care."

A sweeping government revision of the Alberta Health Act is expected to be the centrepiece legislation when politicians return Monday for the five-week fall sitting.

The bill, to be introduced by Conservative Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky, will enshrine in legislation a set of governing principles and grievance procedures, but won't address specific front-line concerns.

Acute-care beds needed

Albertans are dealing with staff shortages, long wait times for surgery and overcrowded emergency wards, a problem highlighted last week by the release of a letter by Dr. Paul Parks, the president of emergency medicine for the Alberta Medical Association.

'If this is the future of health care in Alberta, we're in trouble. This is nothing. It's air. It's smoke.' Laurie Blakeman

In the letter, Parks said severe overcrowding in emergency wards was threatening to cause the system to collapse.

Parks said a shortage of long-term care beds was causing the system to back up, with patients who should be in long-term care beds jamming up the acute-care beds, leading in turn to overcrowding in the emergency wards.

Mason said his party, in a report based on their own cross-province public hearings, has previously cited alleviating the long-term bed shortage as the key to reversing the disastrous domino effect.

Zwozdesky said last week the government is taking action. He announced it will add another 200 beds to the system and roll out a new strategy to solve emergency wait times.

'Broken system'

But Rob Anderson, house leader for the opposition Wildrose Alliance, said if the concern is front-line care, the province should not be focusing on big-picture definitions and guidelines in its revised Health Act.

"We have a broken system right now," Anderson said.

"People are waiting not just for months, sometimes for years, for hip and knee replacements and other surgeries. We're just pouring money into a black hole. We need to look at the actual system itself and fix what is not working."

Anderson said his party will roll out its ideas to fix the system during the legislative session, suggestingthe conceptswon't be shy about pursuing privatized medicine as long as it remains under the umbrella of public funding.

Government House Leader Dave Hancock said the new Health Act is essential because everyone needs to be on the same road map if they are to successfully implement lasting changes.

But Alberta Liberal house leader Laurie Blakeman worries the act will be a Trojan Horse for the Tories to pursue a secretive health-care agenda.

"It's a shell bill, and that means everything that's important is in the regulations," she said. "If this is the future of health care in Alberta, we're in trouble. This is nothing. It's air. It's smoke."