My Prescription for Better Health Care
Sunday April 18, 2010
David Swann
As a physician, Leader of the Official Opposition and a concerned citizen, it infuriates me to see how Conservative mismanagement has damaged the quality, efficiency and accessibility of our public health care system.
Nearly every day my office receives letters, calls or emails from patients or health care professionals about how dysfunctional the system has become. But we can turn everything around with a plan that includes regional delivery, rebuilding trust and reinvesting in primary health care. This will take a combination of consultation, common sense, stable leadership and a transparent plan for the long run.
Premier Stelmach’s only response to the chaos his policies have created is to throw an additional $2 billion at the problem. While public health care will always require significant investment, this is not the way to address the issues plaguing the system. We already spend more per capita on health than any other Canadian jurisdiction, but our health outcomes are worse; we aren’t getting value for our money.
Albertans have a right to expect a well managed, accessible, quality public health system. But data from public surveys and the Health Quality Council show that the Stelmach administration isn’t delivering. In less than twenty years, Conservative administrations have imposed knee-jerk, unplanned, major restructuring three times – and each time, they have thrown the system into chaos, creating incredible headaches for health care professionals and poorer outcomes for patients. As a result, there has been a major breakdown in respect, trust and understanding between the government and the health care professionals charged with making the system work.
This respect, understanding and trust must be restored if Albertans are to enjoy the quality and accessibility they deserve. But beyond that, we need a government that understands the fundamental importance of primary health care.
Every Albertan needs a family doctor. That’s the cornerstone of my approach to fixing public health care. If every Albertan had a family doctor, wait times would be reduced, health outcomes would improve, costs would come down and more space would open up in our clinics and hospitals. A greater focus on preventative medicine would further reduce costs and improve outcomes. Right now, the system is heavily focused on treating expensive chronic illness. We need to expand the scope of public health care with a range of preventative programs: safeguards for water and air quality, as well as support and education for lifestyle changes such as better nutrition, more exercise, smoking cessation and so on. This will keep Albertans healthier and less reliant on catastrophic care.
You can’t create the thousands of health care professionals Alberta needs overnight. Aside from family doctors, Alberta needs more nurses, more homecare, technicians, EMTs and all the rest. This will require a long-term investment in public education, at both the secondary and post-secondary level. Not only do we need to create more spaces at universities and technical schools to train health care professionals, we need to start promoting these careers to young Albertans. Alberta is awash in raw talent; it’s foolish to depend on recruitment from outside Alberta when so many talented hands and bright minds exist right here within our borders. If I were Premier, I’d add the needed spaces to post-secondary institutions across the province, anticipating demographic changes to avoid disruptive staff shortages.
Alberta has all the tools in place to maintain a world-class public health system, accessible to all, affordable for taxpayers. What we need is a government that will manage that system based on principles, evidence, consultation with professionals, and a vision for long term excellence.
-- David Swann, Leader of the Official Opposition
Column ID#: 127
**Opinions expressed by guest columnists do not necessarily reflect the views of Connect2Edmonton members, partners or sponsors.**
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