Rural Alberta fears it will be overlooked by new health superboard

Alberta's move from nine health authorities to one "superboard" could result in rural needs being overlooked, experts and health-care workers warn.

"I don't know how they're going to assess an entire province's needs by 15 people who don't probably even know where half of the places are," said Carol Secondiak, the board chair of the now-dissolved Palliser Health Region, based in Medicine Hat.

Health Minister Ron Liepert announced the creation of the Edmonton-based Alberta Health Services board on Thursday. Effective immediately, the new agency will take control of the nine health regions, the Cancer Board, the Mental Health Board and the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission.

A chair and six-member panel have been appointed to lead the board during the transition phase, with the permanent, 15-member board in place by the end of the year.

'I think that they really have done great violence to the system with this manoeuvre.' Tom Noseworthy

Secondiaksaid she fears people in southeastern Alberta will be forgotten by the urban board.

The province's plan includes the appointment of voluntary community health councils to alert the board of the needs in different areas, in an attempt to prevent these regions from being overlooked.

But Tom Noseworthy, the director of the Centre for Health and Policy studies at the University of Calgary, said such councils simply don't work because they aren't decision-making bodies.

"I don't have any confidence that this new board and management responsible for the entire provincial delivery will have enough sensitivities to local area needs, because I don't think those councils will actually have enough influence," he said.

He added that he doesn't see how one board can respond to the needs of all communities in such a vast province.

"Suddenly Alberta Health and Wellness is in charge of the delivery of our health-care system replacing about 11 CEOs that themselves would say they're working flat out and busy all the time. I just don't know how the work is going to get done," he said.

"I think that they really have done great violence to the system with this maneouvre."

He said the rural areas will suffer because health services will likely end up even more concentrated in major centres.

Health-care advocate Rick Lundy, with Open Arms Patient Advocacy Group, said he fears the central board could "bleed money from the rural areas."

"It's going to make the rural areas very ineffective, and it's going to stress their system out as well," he said.

He added that the people running the central board are most familiar with urban care and may not be prepared to handle the rural issues.

Noseworthyadded that such a board could be detrimental to cities like Calgary as well.

Could hurt Calgary

Noseworthy saidcities like Calgary, which have been fighting for a greater part of the budget, may find that their priorities are lost on a CEO who has the entire province in mind.

Dr. Glenn Comm, the former president of the Calgary and Area Physicians Association,said he's worried Calgary's needs will be forgotten.

"We had a board [the Calgary Health Region] that was able to advocate for us, we still have [CHR CEO] Jack Davis and his abilities to push, but with the finances controlled elsewhere, it's disconcerting," he said.

The Calgary Health Region declined the CBC's request for an interview. In a written statement,Davis said he was hopeful the new provincial board would help address the significant issues facing health care in Alberta.

In a separate statement, former board chair David Tuer said he hoped the new board would take seriously the challenges and pressures facing the health-care system.

Comme said he does hope that rolling the mental health, cancer and regional boards into one may make it easier to treat patients with multiple issues as doctors will be able to focus on treatment and not on which board will be picking up the tab.

Doctors hold out hope

Some doctors said the centralized board could improve the province's health care, as it could streamline services and create a single funding structure.

Calgary doctor Yasmin Majeed said in a system facing a shortage of family physicians and lengthy waittimes, switching to one boardcouldn't really make matters much worse.

"There are a lot of issues with family practice these days, and if there is a central place where everyone can look to for answers, it can have the uniformity that we're looking for, and maybe end all the frustration," she said.

University of Alberta nursing professor Donna Wilson said shebelieves the government is now on the right track, after years of health regions looking only at their own needs instead of the province's.

"I think that this is going to address many of the problems that we've seen because of regionalization," she said.

She added she hoped to see substantial changes from the new board such as better long-term planning and moving to get rid of the duplication of services, both things that she felt regional health authorities failed to address.

Patients won't see changes yet

While the effectiveness and effects of the switch to one board continue to be questioned by health-care workers and experts, patients won't be seeing dramatic changes any time soon.

Liepert said the plan will affect mostly health-care managers in the short term.

"Patients and those thousands of people working in the system will not experience change in the delivery of health services in their region basic and urgent health care will be there when and where Albertans need it," he said.

"Albertans should continue accessing health services in their communities and calling the Health Link lines."