Alberta in discussions re: large private orthopedic facility. Some thoughts...cbc.ca/news/canada/ed…
270,000 sq ft private ortho hospital to be built in Edmonton. Plan is to send all ortho cases there other than emergencies. All nurses and other staff will be non-unionized (@UnitedNurses).
Concerning that AHS seemingly frozen out of these discussions even though they are responsible for delivering health services in the province.
Problematic that Ministry of Health officials were organizing this before the bill had even become law. Did their lobbying efforts influence the legislation, which should have been drafted with the public interest and not the interest of these surgeons in mind?
Unclear how the government plans to oversee quality at this private facility, given substantial body of evidence showing quality of care concerns with for-profit care.
Gov has said that they are concerned with how much drs make. This facility is likely to see some of the highest earners earning more. They may deliver care in a manner that saves money to make a profit (which has led to quality concerns in other contexts).
Private facilities can upsell "enhanced" uninsured services to patients. Unclear what gov will do to ensure that pts who buy "enhanced" services aren't getting faster access to care and that pts don't feel pressured to purchase these uninsured services (which some have reported).
Concerning that lobbyists were involved in these efforts, whose job is to push the government to advance the financial interests of their clients, which are often contrary to the public interest (see e.g. big pharma, big tobacco, etc.). Did they influence bill 30?
This sounds a lot like the last orthopedic hospital build in Calgary, which was a spectacular financial failure that left the public system holding the bag (Health Resources Centre). The gov has been repeatedly asked how it plans to avoid a similar HRC situation.
One problem with privatization is the public system ends up subsidizing the private system. That is already happening with the gov putting out a call for proposals to create a Secretariat to attract corporations to deliver public health services and may happen with this facility
Unclear how much the public system will invest in the land, the building, etc. or what it will cost them if this fails (as with HRC). The public system seems to be bearing all of the risk here with the contract locking in the gov to withstand the next election.
Although the details of this facility leaked, one wonders what other behind-the-scenes-of-bill-30 negotiations are happening re: private facilities. Their behaviour undermines the open RFP process.
