The Alberta Liberal Party announced its plans for health care this week with a call for more local decision-making, more family doctors and a focus on prevention that would include banning trans fats and mandating ATV helmets.
The plan, unveiled Wednesday, would eliminate the existing Alberta Health Services superboard and replace it with five regional entities covering Edmonton and Calgary plus boards for central, northern and southern Alberta.
The Liberals would also restore separate boards for cancer care and mental health.
Outgoing Liberal leader David Swann, who oversaw the development of the plan, said the province’s amalgamation of nine regional boards was a mistake.
“It has become very clear that the experiment with the superboard has simply created chaos.”
He said there is good reason to bring the focus on health care back into the communities.
“People at the front lines know what needs to happen, the best decisions to make, and how to deliver it, so we need to give control back to the region.”
The Liberals would allow elections for some board members, while appointing about half. Swan said in the past the all-appointed boards owed the minister for their jobs, limiting their decision making.
“The board members were listening to the minister, not to some of the common sense solutions the local people were suggesting.”
The other major component of the Liberal plan is a focus on primary care, improving access to family doctors and encouraging more primary care networks, where several doctors set up under the same roof.
They are also pledging to improve access to diagnostic imaging and other technology.
Swann said all of these changes would be costly up front, but would reduce costs over the long run, by treating people earlier.
“If we invest in those things there are going to be some upfront costs, but the savings are going to be phenomenal down the line.”
The plan also calls for more preventive measure to keep people healthier, including requiring ATV helmets, banning smoking in vehicles where children are present and banning trans fats.
Swann said those issues are up for debate, but he believes Albertans will see the merit.
“We are all paying for a health system that is chasing problems that could be prevented,” he said. “We have to spend our money better and prevent what is preventable.”
