Calgary health executive asked to check on VIPs

A Calgary health executive says she used to receive calls to check up on VIP patients and was once asked to help out a member of former premier Ralph Klein's inner circle.

Janice Stewart, the executive director of surgery at the Rockyview General Hospital, told Alberta's queue-jumping inquiry she refused to help out each time either because it wasn't medically safe or because it wasn't ethical.

She testified that in 2005, while working in the cardiac unit at Calgary's Foothills Hospital, she would be asked by her boss to check on prominent patients to see if they had any concerns or to just "say hi."

Stewart says she refused to do it because the patients were already getting the necessary care and that unless the patient wanted to see her, their medical troubles were none of her business and it made her feel uncomfortable.

The inquiry commissioner asked if staff were expected to do anything beyond a simple greeting and Stewart says it was simply a courtesy call, and if that person complained about their care it would be dealt with like any complaint.

Stewart also testified that VIPs would often be admitted under aliases for privacy.

She also says a decade ago former Calgary Health Region CEO Jack Davis asked her to look into supervised home care for a child belonging to a member of Klein's inner circle, but she again refused because the child was too ill.

Stewart says the matter was dropped and can't remember the name of the person with the ill child who made the request of Davis.