Catering to her party’s ideologues is jeopardizing the very foundation of Alberta’s healthcare system
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Alberta has managed to build a quality healthcare system over the years, despite some occasional rough patches like then-premier Ralph Klein’s 21-per-cent cut to system funding in the mid-1990s.
Yet it has taken less than two disastrous terms for the United Conservative Party to send that premium healthcare system into a nosedive.
When ideology clashes with science and common sense, politicians follow the votes. In Alberta, those votes come from disillusioned ideologues who are part of a global movement that distrusts authority. Their main target is Alberta’s taxpayer-funded healthcare system.
The clashes between the Alberta Health System and anti-authority activists in Alberta have a history as long as your arm. For some, it started when former premier Jason Kenney, the first UCP leader, clashed with doctors over their compensation. In February 2020, the province unilaterally ended its funding contract with the Alberta Medical Association (AMA) just as healthcare workers were risking their lives to manage the outbreak of COVID-19.
Kenney’s successor, Premier Danielle Smith, has carried on the campaign. Shortly after becoming premier in 2022, Smith, an ally of the quack-COVID-cure crowd, fired Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s medical officer of health.
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Smith blamed both Hinshaw and the leadership of AHS for failing to deliver the best advice and care for Albertans. Smith alleged that “mishandling” forced the province to impose vaccine mandates and restrictions, infuriating the so-called freedom activists who form the base of her support.
Smith then installed a new board of directors for AHS in November 2022. In short order, Health Minister Adriana LaGrange announced that AHS’s role would be scaled back to focus on delivering acute care services, with the rest of its previous duties being distributed among four newly created agencies. Although the government argued the move would improve service, skeptics (like myself) believe this move is punishment for AHS not aligning with the government’s stance during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s not just the AHS that’s in the UCP’s sites. The doctors themselves also seem to be targeted.
Like most provinces, Alberta is facing a severe shortage of family doctors. In large part, it’s because they’re now underpaid. The Alberta Medical Association has been trying to reach a deal on a new payment model for family doctors and rural generalists, and LaGrange has said multiple times that she’s onside with the idea.
Yet, a year after the government and the AMA signed a memorandum of understanding, there is still no deal. The provincial government, we are told, wants the doctors to find more ways to curb growing healthcare costs, even though the association formally submitted its primary care stabilization proposal to the government in late 2023.
LaGrange’s office put it this way: “We knew from the start that developing a new physician compensation model would be a complex and time-consuming process. This work was never about quick fixes, and there is still a little more work to be done.”
Meanwhile, the clock is ticking for doctors. “We have practices that are looking at closing right now because they can’t pay their staff and pay their overhead,” said former AMA president Dr. Paul Parks.
There’s no question that healthcare costs have been growing alarmingly. In 2005, healthcare spending was budgeted at $9.5 billion; this year, the forecast is $26.2 billion, roughly three times what it was less than 20 years ago.
Many question, however, whether the cost-cutting efforts are influenced by the premier’s chummy relationship with those who oppose the medical establishment. A clear example is the government’s push to make it easier for people to refuse vaccination.
If you look at party policy resolutions from last year’s UCP gathering, one policy resolution proposed updating Alberta’s Bill of Rights to strengthen protections for those against vaccinations. Smith has stated that these updates would include safeguarding Albertans’ right to refuse vaccines or other medical treatments.
Doctors and academics have serious misgivings about the right-to-refuse movement. Lorian Hardcastle, an associate professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Calgary, says the changes could prevent employers from requiring vaccines and prevent regulatory colleges from disciplining members who spread misinformation. So, put baldly, the net effect of these new protections is they will give anti-vaxxers a hall pass, even if doing so puts others’ health at risk.
So freedom and protection of rights apparently apply only to those who keep you in office.
You might wonder what this growing distrust of experts and financial squeezing is having on family doctors. The evidence is in the numbers. A January poll by ThinkHQ for the Alberta Medical Association (AMA) showed that 60 percent of Alberta’s family doctors are considering leaving the province’s healthcare system. Of the 1,375 doctors surveyed, 91 percent are worried about the financial stability of their practices, with around 52 percent saying they are very concerned.
“Our entire health care system is at stake,” said the AMA’s Parks. “Because if you don’t fix primary care, it’s impossible to address the issues in acute care or continuing care or mental health and addictions care.”
Meanwhile, a record number of Albertans are looking for a family doctor in 2023, according to Primary Care Networks, an organization that brings AHS and doctors together to develop team-based healthcare models.
From one of the best systems in Canada, Alberta’s health care is headed for the ditch.
It’s time to set aside ideologies and have honest conversations built on mutual respect and trust.
Doug Firby is an award-winning editorial writer with over four decades of experience working for newspapers, magazines and online publications in Ontario and western Canada. Previously, he served as Editorial Page Editor at the Calgary Herald.
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