Alberta premier’s comments on surgical funding spark backlash

There is mixed messaging from the province about whether a new surgical funding model will see hospitals compete with private surgical facilities for funding.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is facing mounting criticism from health-care professionals and the opposition after suggesting hospitals are misusing surgical funding — a claim her own health minister later contradicted.

In a video released Monday, Smith announced Alberta will begin shifting from a global budgeting model to activity-based funding for surgeries.

She said the goal is to drive competition between hospitals and charter surgical facilities to lower wait times and boost efficiency.

“We’ll foster competition so all medical centres, whether charter surgical facilities or hospitals, get rewarded for delivering results for patients,” Smith said.

“Hospitals miss their targets, and there’s no accountability because they’ve already got the pot of money. In fact, hospitals will often stall on surgical procedures so they can use their global funding in another way.”

But just hours later, in response to questions from CTV, the health minister’s press secretary seemed to walk back that claim in a written statement, saying, “The suggestion that chartered surgical facilities compete with hospitals reflects a misunderstanding that would apply in a privately funded system.”

Health Minister Adriana LaGrange also appeared to downplay the premier’s comments, telling reporters, “What the premier is wanting to say, and what I believe she was trying to say, is, in fact, that when you have global budgeting, there is no incentive to actually do more.”

Critics say the conflicting messages reveal deeper problems in the UCP government’s approach to health-care reform.

Mike Parker, president of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta, accused the government of manipulating public opinion while dismantling the public system.

“There has been a concerted effort to decrease the funding through a public model in this province for a very long time,” Parker said.

“We don’t have the expert health-care professionals that go along with the surgeon to complete all of these complex surgeries.”

He said Smith’s assertion that hospitals are stalling surgeries misunderstands the root problem — severe staff shortages.

At the University of Alberta Hospital, for instance, Parker said only eight perfusionists are currently working out of 18 needed.

“You want to build all of these other access points where people can compete … but we don’t have the people. It’s not about creating warehouse space or storefronts where you can get your discount hip,” Parker said.

NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said the premier’s proposal reflects “an enormous amount of waste and corruption through the entire system,” placing the blame on the UCP government — not the hospitals.

“We can’t spend $240,000 for an anesthetist at the Royal Alex Hospital. Instead, we’ll spend half a billion dollars on private surgical facilities that are more expensive and do fewer surgeries,” he said.

“This is this government.”

NDP health critic Sarah Hoffman said Smith’s video comments were a slight to frontline health-care workers.

“The premier keeps showing disrespect to frontline health-care workers,” Hoffman said.

“They are in there hustling every day to do their best to care for their patients, and they want to do more.”

She also rejected Smith’s assertion that competition should be the model for health-care delivery.

“When you show up at a hospital, you don’t care if the hospital down the road is a good competitor or not. You’re there to get the kind of care that you need at a time that’s often a point of crisis,” Hoffman said.

In her video, Smith also accused hospitals of intentionally underperforming to use surgery funds elsewhere, but Parker said that scenario ignores the underlying policy failures that have made it nearly impossible to staff operating rooms — let alone open new ones.

“If the premier is pointing at a hospital and saying that hospital has operating suites that aren’t even in service right now, and that means to her they’re misallocating funds — the reality is that operating suite is empty because the province’s policies have reduced the staff to allow it to be operating,” he said.

Meanwhile, the province announced Tuesday it will move oversight of cancer care, organ transplantation and tissue donation from Alberta Health Services to the newly created Acute Care Alberta agency.

The government said the move will give Cancer Care Alberta control over its own workforce and funding.

Legislation enabling the change is expected later this spring.

Opposition critics say that change is part of a larger dismantling of Alberta Health Services, which they argue is being hollowed out to make way for private providers.

“This is the deconstruction of a system that actually took care of people,” Parker said.

“Was it perfect? No. But we weren’t carving out for-profit models on the backs of those who needed care the most.”