EXCLUSIVE - Health Care In Crisis - Chris Galloway
Chris Galloway
Executive Director
The following is from the Palliser Friends of Medicare (PFOM) AGM held last night. The Trash Panda was the only media who attended. *Full disclosure - Kelly has been on the board of the PFOM since 2021
Chris Galloway, executive director of the provincial Friends of Medicare (FOM) was the speaker at the PFOM AGM. He says he has spoken with people across the province, that people are worried about access to medical care, issues such as
Family Doctors
Specialists
Closed ERs
Mental Health
Surgery waitlists
Substance Use Treatment Beds
Waitlists for vaccines
Etc
The current government is breaking the system intentionally so they can privatize. He pointed to the failure of Dynalife taking over the labs and how it had to revert to the public system. We were told by the government how much time and money we would be saving but Dynalife failed to provide services in a timely fashion, people were often waiting for hours to have their blood drawn, waiting weeks to get an appointment. Some people travelled to places like Bow Island to get labwork done in a timely manner.
Overhaul of AHS
Galloway criticized what he called the “blowing up” of AHS into 4 sections to look after sectors of health care. He said it was a very expensive restructuring, creating chaos in health care system, which was again intentional. These four pillars include
Primary Care
Acute Care
Seniors Care
Mental Health and Addiction
The problem with this is that it divides care into 4 separate sessions whereas a person is a single entity. (Imagine if you will, a diabetic senior who has mental health issues and they just broke their leg. Their care would be covered by four separate departments who may or may not be as timely inputting the information into Connect Care.)
There are concerns about Recovery Alberta - the Mental Health and Addictions Care model started Sept 1. Galloway criticized it for being ideological, pro-forced treatment, anti-harm reduction. He says our government has signed contracts with for-profit recovery centres, calling it union busting. He said the My Recovery app is made by a private company which owns the collected data. There are concerns about how that data is used, the possibility of selling off patient data to private companies.
Galloway cited the case of a recovery centre in Gunn AB - it was a treatment centre for homeless men. The government closed it in 2021 forcing out the clients and laying off 60 workers. It was reopened this summer under a for-profit model.
Galloway is concerned with blowing up unions and a lower quality of care. He says addictions are not a regulated health profession, claims that recovery coaches can take a one day course and can work within the industry.
AHS has become a Service-Contracting Entity, not a Service Delivery Entity. The government is more interested in privatizing health care than in providing health care. Premier Danielle Smith has talked about turning hospitals over to Covenant Health. Galloway says that it’s all about profit for their friends using public health care dollars. The government is encouraging large corporations to come and profit off our health. For example - Shoppers Drug Marts has 103 clinics across the province. Shoppers is charging for on site testing instead of sending to lab which Galloway says is illegal under Canada’s health laws. There is a push for patients to switch pharmacists to get their prescriptions from Shoppers.
Telus is profiting from health brokering between drug plans and drug companies.
Private Surgical Centres
Private surgical centres have been opened for hip/knee surgeries. Their own data shows they reduced our surgical capacity because more clinics does not increase staff, they just move them around. Our own hospitals are doing less surgeries, making workforce issues worse. We have a staffing crisis in Alberta, there are not enough doctors and skilled health professionals especially as population booms. Other governments are acting, ours is not.
We need to focus on retention, not recruiting. The AB Government broke their promise to sign the new physician compensation model in September. It is now November, doctors are moving away. The Alberta Medical Association (AMA) says they are ready to go, but the government is not signing the agreement. AMA surveyed own members, over half of docs are looking at leaving AB in the next 3 years, either moving away or retiring.
Galloway says we have a massive crisis in front of us. The FOM website has a plan to rebuild our healthcare.
Galloway Took Questions
Q What can we do to make change happen other than get rid of this government?
A Governments do respond to public pressure. Galloway spoke about cuts to the insulin pump program and how the government backed down because of the backlash. Galloway tells the room to contact their MLAs and ask them - why aren’t you signing the doctors contract? MLAs are getting worried with the backlash and will have to pull back.
Statement from the room about the Recovery Model App, person had a concern about no data about how many people making through the programs. They went on to talk about a family member who needs hip surgery and is going through a private facility.
This family member said if 100 were lined up for hip surgery, if 50 go private, the other 50 would have more openings.
Q Was this true?
A No, private clinics do not shorten wait lists. They do not create more surgeons, or anaesthetists, it is just letting people skip the queue. It’s easy to skip the queue, you just have to go to another province and use the same spots the public would use if they weren’t filled. People are actually waiting longer. Saskatchewan is buying surgical space in Alberta to serve their people, it is creating a two tier health care system.
This was tried years ago and this Calgary surgical centre went bankrupt years with the taxpayers picking up the tab.
Q A person had a concern about Connect Care and how private facilities are not required to contribute to it.
A Private centres only keep the simplest surgeries. If there are any problems, they get sent to our hospitals. Connect Care records are connected, but contracted out services are not part of the system. Galloway cites an example of a person who went into the ER for heart issues. They had gone to a private cardiac clinic but the ER doc could not access the records. They could not call the clinic because the clinic was only open during the weekdays for limited hours.
Q About Shoppers Drug Marts charging fees, are there any legal challenges?
A We have called for an investigation about Shoppers new “innovative” model where they might charge for tests on site and give you the drugs immediately. As far as we know they are not being investigated. They don't always tell the public about an investigation until it's over. Last year a Calgary clinic charged fees to get quicker access to doctors, FOM contacted the feds, they backed down.
Alberta has had healthcare dollars clawed back because of charging patients for diagnostic imaging such as MRIs.
Next Meeting for Palliser Friends Of Medicare
Tuesday November 19
10am Veiner Centre Bistro
225 Woodman Avenue SE
You don’t need to be a member to attend the meeting, the bistro is also open to the public.
