CALGARY – Albertans will have to wait until the end of this month to see how many changes are coming to the province’s health care system.
That is when a newly created committee is to report to health minister Shirley McLellan with recommendations on how “to co-ordinate restructuring of the health care system in Alberta.”
The minister has given no firm details on exactly what that restructuring means or what kind of a report she expects. McLellan said she’ll take action on the report, which is due Jan. 31.
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“Health services will change,” she said.
The committee consists of 17 health professionals, labor and business representatives. Co-chaired by Tory MLA and physician Lyle Oberg and Norman Wagner, chair of Alberta Natural Gas, this newest committee is called the Health Plan Coordination Project.
The committee has been told to review a report called Starting Points compiled from this fall’s round table meetings when the public was asked to tell government where it wanted reform.
One of the key duties of the committee will be to help define what is an essential health service while still abiding by the level of basic care sketched out in the Canada Health Act.
The government has been hinting there are some services it won’t pay for in future because they aren’t necessary to a patient’s health. At the same time it doesn’t want to jeopardize losing health transfer payments from Ottawa, said health secretariat head Dianne Mirosh.
McLellan wants changes partly to cut 20 percent out of the $4 billion health care budget in three years. She’s also looking for a new attitude in the way medical care is offered.
“It is clear our health system must refocus. It must be a system of wellness, not illness.”
Reallocate resources
“We tend today to deliver services in very expensive ways. We also tend to deliver services in somewhat inappropriate ways. I think this has robbed us of opportunities to reallocate resources to areas of greater need,” she said.
She provided few specifics on where she thinks waste exists in the system. She does want a more streamlined health program where duplication of services is eliminated within geographic areas and ensures “better coordination of service delivery.”
McLellan acknowledged the province must be flexible enough to provide good care to people whether they are in a large city or remote community.
She wants to see communities shape their health care programs to suit their circumstances, with the government setting standards.
“Clearly the status quo is not an option. Equally clear is that our system can be made more efficient without jeopardizing its productiveness,” she said.
The province has stirred up rumors and questions about the future of health care in its report Starting Points written by Tory MLAs Oberg and Mirosh.
The report called for a reduction in the amount of services Alberta Heath would continue to pay for, hinted at user fees and suggested everyone except those who cannot pay must be charged health care premiums. It also proposed the amalgamation of the province’s 200 hospital boards into less than 30 “superboards.”
