Oh Ralphie, You So Crazy

Yesterday, King Ralph finally introduced his "third way" health care plan with quite a bit of controversy. His 10 point "solution" is as follows along with commentary.

1. Putting Patients at the Center New directions and strategies for the continuous improvement and development of the health system will give priority to the interests of the people being served. Albertans will be encouraged to play an active role in maintaining and improving their own health and in deciding on appropriate care and treatment.

Translation, look after your own health, because we ain't gonna do squat for you.

2. Promoting Flexibility in Scope of Practice of Health Professionals Alberta’s new legislation governing the health professions provides greater flexibility in terms of the scope of practice of the various professions as a means of promoting greater innovation. Alberta will continue to work with health professions to take full advantage of the opportunities that the Health Professions Act has made possible. Team approaches to care will be promoted in areas that provide the greatest benefit. Mechanisms will be developed to determine the most responsible caregiver in each particular situation and to ensure that care is seamless and meets high standards of proficiency and quality.

So, you say you are a neurosurgeon and you say you got skin...guess that means you are now a dermatologist as well.

3. Implementing New Compensation Models Alberta will develop alternative compensation structures and models that provide incentives for quality of care, efficiency and inter-professional collaboration. These compensation models should be based on the achievement of measurable health outcomes and compliance with indicators of quality. New compensation models should also contribute to recruitment and retention strategies and take into account changes in clinical practice resulting from such initiatives as telehealth and the Electronic Health Record. Successful implementation of alternative compensation models also will require consultation and negotiation with professional associations.

Now, to save money, every service is now considered non-vital and as such, you can now charge whatever you want. Soooooooo......MONEY FIGHT!!!!!

4. Strengthening Inter-regional Collaboration Regional health authorities and Alberta Health and Wellness will collectively plan for the delivery of health services and the establishment of shared service networks throughout the province. Building on the successful implementation of the heart institute and the bone and joint institutes, Alberta will continue to support the establishment of such institutes so as to combine leading edge research with advanced clinical care.

So......I guess that means that it is business as usual

5. Reshaping the Role of Hospitals The collective planning process between regional health authorities and Alberta Health and Wellness will include options for changing the role of urban and rural hospitals so as to provide better and more responsive service to Albertans. Changes may include shifting some day surgery and ambulatory care services to community settings, delivering more services through private surgical facilities, linking some rural hospitals to urban hospitals for the provision of less complicated acute or follow-up care and converting small rural hospitals to centres of multi-disciplinary primary care. If necessary, regulatory changes will be made.

"Heart surgeries cost less in Wetaskiwin" (Warning: must live in Alberta to get this joke)

6. Establishing Parameters for Publicly Funded Health Services Public funding will still be used for the essential kinds of health services. Alberta will build on the work already completed to implement the recommendations of the Expert Advisory Panel to Review Publicly Funded Health Services. Services and benefits which are discretionary, are not of proven benefit or are experimental in nature may not qualify for public funding.

This one frightens me. This one gives the Alberta government carte blanche to tell us what is necessary and what is not. Now, if you tear your muscle, you would now have to pay for the surgery since it is not vital to have that surgery.

7. Creating Long-Term Sustainability and Flexible Funding Options Alberta will closely examine how various alternative funding models for health related benefits and services, such as prescription drugs, continuing care, dental care, allied (nonphysician) health services and non-emergency acute care services, would work in this province. Appropriate legislative changes will be introduced to ensure long-term sustainability and flexible funding options.

Still tying into the privatization of health care. Now you can get an estimate on how much it would cost to get heart surgery. So in summary....Hi Doctor Nick!!

8. Expanding System Capacity Where it makes sense, in response to identified needs, Alberta will expand system capacity and consumer choice in both the public and private delivery systems. The supply of skilled health professionals will be increased by providing onsite training opportunities in both public and private facilities in cooperation with professional teaching institutions.

Close, but no cigar. Now if King Ralph just put more money into the public health sector, the problems would have just gone away...but that would be too easy.

9. Paying for Choice and Access while Protecting the Public System Service providers will be encouraged to find innovative ways of providing improved consumer choice – provided that these innovations do not adversely affect the provision of essential services through the public health system. Mechanisms will be required to closely monitor the impact of the private system on the public health system to enable corrective action to be taken to safeguard the public system if necessary. Prohibitions in the Alberta Health Care Insurance Act that prevent physicians from “opting-out” in certain circumstances will be replaced with provisions that will not adversely affect the delivery of services within the public system.

So.....If the doctor doesn't make money doing the procedure or if he has plans, too bad for you.

10. Deriving Economic Benefits from Health Services and Research Alberta will capitalize on its world class health service and research facilities and will encourage and assist in the national and international marketing of intellectual property and innovations developed in Alberta.

So now we are going to sell our research to other parts of Canada to get money....yet another blow to the Hippocratic Oath.

Now as I stated earlier and quite often, if the Alberta government just put more money into the public sector, then we would reduce wait times, and be able to provide an excellent, top notch health care system. The problem is that King Ralph just wants to make money and screw the rest of us. I wish someone would slap King Ralph and drive some sense into him. Alberta has a 6 billion surplus which could be put into health care so we could open up the hospitals that King Ralph closed a decade earlier. Why am I the only one who sees this??

The new Alberta Health Policy Framework is here for your perusal