Alberta health committee to focus on access

A new committee has been appointed to reform provincial health care legislation that Alberta Health Minister Ron Liepert says interferes with patients' access to care.

"This exercise is not about delisting services or privatizing our publicly funded health care system," Liepert said on Tuesday.

However, moments later at a Tuesday morning news conference in Edmonton, Liepert said the committee may also review what the province covers under medicare in the course of its work.

"While we're guided by the Canada Health Act, are there services, are there procedures that are being performed in the system today ... how are they funded?  All of those kinds of things and that's the kind of work that the committee will be doing," he said.

Liepert said he wants the committee to work with the health department to review services and determine if they are meeting patient needs.

"We always engage in this country of talking about what should be covered," he said. "We need to ensure that we're appropriately looking at all of the things that the Canada Health Act implicated many, many years ago and may in some ways be an outdated way of delivering health care."

The 16-member committee will be co-chaired by Tory MLA Fred Horne and Calgary patient safety advocate Deborah Prowse. They will report back to Liepert in mid-November. The committee won't be holding any public meetings, but members of the public will be asked for their input through a website.

Despite Liepert's insistence this is not a delisting committtee, Liberal MLA Hugh MacDonald said he doesn't believe it.

"Of course this is about delisting," MacDonald said. "They want to restrict and limit the services that are available to Albertans and they want to do that through delisting."

Some health care laws 100 years old: Liepert

Health care legislation in Alberta is outdated and focuses on hospitals and doctors rather than patients, Liepert said. The Hospitals Act, for example, was written at a time when a patient could not get medical treatment outside a hospital.

"We have evolved where much of our treatment today can be in an environment that is not necessarily just a hospital setting.  It's better for the patient," Liepert said.

Alberta Health Services, the province's single health care board, is facing a $1.3-billion deficit. Last week, board president Stephen Duckett said voluntary retirements are among the measures that will be used to cut costs.

However, Liepert said the committee's work is centred on improving patient access, not cutting costs.

The committee members are:

• co-chair Fred Horne, Tory MLA for Edmonton-Rutherford, former health policy consultant
• co-chair Deborah Prowse, public member of board of directors of the non-profit Canadian Patient Safety Institute, member of Patients for Patient Safety Canada and the Patient Safety Initiative of the World Health Organization
• Tom Feasby, dean of the faculty of medicine at the University of Calgary
• John Cowell, CEO of the Health Quality Council of Alberta
• Gordon Graydon, former Tory MLA for Grande Prairie-Wapati, former minister of gaming, chair of MLA task force on health care funding and revenue generation in 2002
• Earle Snider, professor emeritus of sociology and adjunct professor in the department of strategic management and organization at the University of Alberta. Research has focused on issues around the elderly and people with disabilities.
• Dan MacLennan, president of Alberta Union of Provincial Employees from 1997-2006, now in private sector
• John Pasternak, president of College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta, family doctor in Medicine Hat
• Gary McPherson, executive director of Canadian Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at University of Alberta, adjunct professor, special adviser and lecturer with faculty of physical education. Well-known advocate for persons with disabilities.
• Donald Johnson, president of Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties, councillor with Municipal District of Taber
• Trish Bayne, PhD in community planning, 15 years of experience in strategic planning and program development for non-profit community and health care agencies, 10 years of experience in policy and reimbursement for the pharmaceutical industry.
• Mary-Ann Robinson, executive director of the College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta
• Merv Bashforth, president of Alberta College of Pharmacists
• Jennie Deneka, administrator of Forest Grove Long Term Care in Calgary
• Tom Samspon, deputy chief of Calgary Emergency Management Agency
• Kimberly Fraser, assistant professor in faculty of nursing at the University of Alberta, and president of Alberta Home Care and Support Association