Lifestyle and Leisure
Positive outlook for Alberta’s health clinics
For those who were in the UK during Thatcher’s controversial privatisation of parts of the National Health Service during the 1980s, a look at Albertan politics might give a sense of déjà vu
The Alberta Premier, Ralph Klein, has put forward a 'third way' approach to the healthcare system in his province that could potentially stir up dissent amongst supporters of the current public system.
One proposal is that doctors should be able to work in both Alberta's public and private health clinics, as opposed to currently choosing between the two. The move towards private clinics treating patients and charging them directly is also adding fuel to the argument by some critics that Alberta is moving away from fundamental Canadian beliefs upheld in other provinces, and towards a more Americanised view of public services. Klein has argued that low funding, not a shortage of doctors and medical staff, is making the current free system unsustainable.
The solution, according to Alberta's Health and Wellness Ministry, is to allow the private sector to take on patients for surgery in three specific areas: Knee and hip replacements, and certain kinds of eye surgeries. The encroachment of the private healthcare system into public hospitals worries some health experts. Tom Noseworthy, director of the University of Calgary's Centre for Health and Policy Studies, said, "There's a limited physician pool, and if doctors get distracted working in the private system, there's no management that can make them work in the public system." Klein's government last week started a one-month public-consultation period while it tries to establish exactly how the system is to work.
Alberta, long held as one of the more conservative provinces, must also convince the federal government in Ottawa that its health proposals don't contravene the Public Health Act. If it fails to, this would result in a withholding of portions of the Health Transfer it hands over to the province. Stephen Harper, the newly elected Conservative Prime Minister seems tentatively in favour of the idea.
Read other articles about Alberta:
Calgary: A city of opportunity
Job market spotlight Alberta
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