Alberta Ministry’s breakup will create confusion, says docs and nurses
Organizations representing doctors and nurses in Alberta say that the division of the Ministry of Provincial Health is divided into two, at the same time Alberta Health Services is broken into four, creating confusion for patients.
On Friday, Premier Daniel Smith announced that Adriana Lagrange, formerly Health Minister, is now a minister of primary and preventive health services and Matt Jones is moving ahead of jobs, economy and business to become a minister of hospitals and surgical services.
Alberta Health will be divided to reflect the areas of responsibility of two ministers.
The province states that it completes Alberta Health Services, former province-wide health authority’s breakup in four different agencies: Acute Care Alberta, Recovery Alberta, Primary Care Alberta and Assisted Living Alberta.
Mental Health and Addiction Minister Rick Wilson is responsible for the recovery of Alberta. Jason Nixon, newly nominated aided and ministry of Social Services, will oversee Alberta, aided.
Chairman of Alberta Medical Association, Dr. Shelley Duggan, is worried about how the patients will navigate the new system.
In an interview with CBC News, Duggan gave an example of a doctor taking care of a hospital patient, who would require home care after giving leave.
“Maybe you are giving them a challenge with taking care of the house,” he said.
“Do you go to acute care people and ask for help? Do you go to continuous care people and ask for help?”
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Another example Duggan is a psychiatrist who takes care of a patient with issues of substance. If the patient is in the hospital, there is intense care Alberta agency with which the doctor’s deal is, Duggan said. If the patient needs to move to the treatment of addictions, the recovery is in charge of Alberta.
“You can see that even within the hospital stay or within an event, we will call it, people can go between all these different columns,” he said.
Heather Smith, president of Alberta United Nurses, said that the confusion created by AHS and ministerial break-up would blur the lines of accountability.
He said that Alberta Health Services was transparent. These new columns with their concerned ministers make it difficult for the public to see where their taxes are going.
“Nixon, Jones, Wilson or Lagrange, the Health Minister you talk about your concerns, about the services you are or are not able to access?” Smith said.
“We had a minister, the deer stopped there. We now have four ministers. Who knows where the deer stops?”
A spokesman from the province said that ministerial changes would not affect patients.
A spokesman said in an email responsible for the Lagrange office, “Public servants will continue their work as usual, to adjust the organizational structures and reporting lines to adjust new cabinet responsibilities, as standard with changes in the cabinet.”
Duggan said that AMAs have regularly met with Lagrange. He said that he has sent a request to meet Jones, Nixon and Wilson.
“For physicians, it is just confusion and chaos and hopefully changes will soon end and we can find out what the new reality is,” he said.
