Former CEO of Alberta Health Services Stephen Duckett is no fan of the media or the way issues around health care are reported. Fair enough; he was given a pretty rough ride during his tenure.
Then along comes another media frenzy that proves him right.
In May, in Toronto, Duckett gave a talk titled Lessons From Alberta: The Road Less Travelled. Only now has the event gained widespread attention. The source of that attention is a rather minor furor over 30 seconds in a 20-minute talk in which he referenced that in the time before he arrived here, there were “go-to guys” who could get people with the right connections to the top of the queue for surgeries and other treatments — and that he ended that practice.
It’s a shame that the only scandal Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky is answering for from that address is the fact that a one-party state, two generations in power has gotten an overdeveloped sense of entitlement.
From a media perspective, that’s a terrible shame, because (now that we know about it) anyone can search “Duckett: Lessons From Alberta” and see the entire talk.
There are far worse condemnations of government performance in health care than mere allegations of cronyism and abuse of office in that talk.
In the 10 years prior to Duckett being called to head AHS, Alberta went from being one of the most efficient providers of health care in Canada to one of the worst — all while becoming the highest spender per capita among provinces on health.
For all that money, Albertans have one year less average life expectancy than other Canadians. Cancer survivorship numbers are worse for Albertans than other Canadians.
Although we pay top salaries for health-care workers, and have greatly increased the number of doctors, there was a drop in percentage of Albertans who could find a family physician.
When Duckett came on the scene, Albertans spent 35 per cent more time in hospital than other Canadians; with no real improvement in outcomes.
The creation of AHS out of of the province’s health regions became one of the largest mergers in Canadian history, and created Canada’s fourth largest employer. It began with no organizational structure, no strategic direction, no budget allocation down the line, no budget reporting and no means of evaluating if money was well-spent.
The province spent vast sums on hospitals but disinvested in seniors care — and we’re seeing the fruits of those decisions today.
Duckett said Alberta’s culture of vindictive politics silenced dissent; a code of conduct assured punishment of any health-care worker who spoke out. There was an “edifice complex” for building hospitals, and "Noah’s Ark” planning, where anything Edmonton or Calgary got, the other city had to have, whether it was needed or not.
All of this rests not at the feet of Duckett, but at the feet of a succession of Tory health ministers.
Duckett was ordered not to comment when a political fire blew up around MLA Raj Sherman, who was kicked out of the Tory caucus for criticizing the government on health care. That sparked the flippant “cookie incident” when he was cornered by a reporter and asked to comment.
His forced departure as CEO deflected attention from Sherman, which may have served the government but not Albertans.
Duckett’s speech is the first event where his personal perspective and lessons learned have been widely aired. It deserves more attention than a 24-hour bump on the news cycle. It deserves more attention than we give just one more case of political cronyism in a tired government, too long in absolute power.
Greg Neiman is an Advocate editor.