Adriana LaGrange, minister of health, speaks about health-care reforms as Alberta Premier Danielle Smith looks on during a news conference in Edmonton on Nov. 8, 2023.JASON FRANSON/The Canadian Press
Premier Danielle Smith has axed the entire board of Alberta’s health authority for the second time under her leadership, as her government dismantles and rebuilds the health system.
The seven-person board is being replaced by a single administrator, Andre Tremblay, who was the interim president of Alberta Health Services, according to a press release issued on Friday. Mr. Tremblay is responsible for overseeing the transition of AHS to a hospital-based service provider. He will continue to serve in his other role as deputy minister of the Ministry of Health.
The government said the moves were necessary to make it more responsive to Albertans’ health care needs. But critics pointed out that the province had emptied the board two years before and hospitals are still burdened by staffing shortages and long waiting times.
Ms. Smith used the same playbook shortly after she took the reins of the United Conservative Party in October, 2022. At the time, she promised to fix Alberta health care in 90 days. The following month, Ms. Smith fired the 12-person board and appointed John Cowell to be the sole administrator of AHS. He, too, was removed a year later when a new board was appointed. Executive leadership of AHS has also faced challenges: Four people have served as president over the past three years.
Alberta Health Minister Adriana LaGrange, in a statement, thanked the board for its work. She said the change will further the government’s efforts to divide AHS into four organizations, each of which takes on a specific focus – acute care, continuing care, primary care and mental health and addictions. The agencies are in various stages of development and operation.
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“We are at a critical time in our efforts to refocus the health care system to better deliver health care to Albertans across the province, and this decision will allow us to be responsive to the health care needs of Albertans,” Ms. LaGrange said.
Mr. Tremblay, also in a statement on Friday, said the governance change will help AHS “remain nimble” while it enters the final stage of its transition. “The first priority of everyone at AHS continues to be providing Albertans with timely access to high-quality health care services and this change will have no material impact on our ability to deliver on that objective,” he added.
The Premier announced the health system overhaul in November, 2023, after many months of railing against AHS. She blamed the health authority for the province’s decision to impose public health restrictions during the pandemic, which she opposed, and accused it of “actively sabotaging” the provincial government by failing to develop adequate intensive care capacity.
Reorganization of Alberta’s health system took away AHS’s authority to formulate policy, allocate funding and make other major decisions. Those responsibilities are now with the government. The expensive and involved process to ditch the single health authority model for four “pillars,” as the government calls them, has yet to deliver real benefits, said New Democratic Party health critic Sarah Hoffman.
Critics of the new system have said it is difficult to navigate and poorly integrated. Ms. Hoffman said hordes of Albertans are still without a doctor and others are dying waiting for treatment.
“Firing the AHS board – a board that Danielle Smith herself appointed after firing and replacing the previous board herself – shows just how chaotic and incompetent this government is,” she said in a statement. “No one is asking for dismantling, mass firings, chaos, and new logos. We all deserve public health care that is there when and where we need it.”
Ms. LaGrange said Primary Care Alberta, one of the four organizations, will become fully operational on Saturday. Recovery Alberta, responsible for mental health and substance-related care, was the first to be stood up last September. Meanwhile, Acute Care Alberta will be established as a legal entity on Saturday and the fourth organization, Assisted Living Alberta, is expected to come online this fall. No specific date was provided.