In a video posted on social media on Wednesday, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said the proposed public-private system will retain surgeons in the province by offering an alternative work model and decrease waitlists.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says surgeons will be the focus of the government’s plan to introduce a health care model where physicians can toggle between the public and private system.
In a seven-minute video posted on social media Wednesday, Ms. Smith, alongside Matt Jones, Alberta’s Minister of Hospital and Surgical Health Services, said her government is calling it the “dual practice surgery model.”
Her comments come one day after The Globe and Mail revealed her government’s plan to introduce a hybrid model that is like no other in Canada, which would allow doctors to simultaneously bill the public purse and privately charge patients for their services. Government officials on Tuesday were tight-lipped about the proposal.
In the video, Ms. Smith said the government will permit surgeons and supporting surgical professionals, such as anesthetists, to perform public and privately funded knee, hip, shoulder, eye and other such elective surgeries in the hybrid model.
Ms. Smith said the coming legislation will be a way to decrease wait-lists for surgeries, and attract and retain surgeons in Alberta by offering an alternative work model. She said the government will regularly review the effectiveness of the dual model and protect publicly funded health care.
“Health care shouldn’t be about blind and outdated ideologies or politics. It should be about providing all Albertans with access to the best health care possible, when and where they need it,” Ms. Smith said.
Critics of the public-private proposal – including the Canadian Medical Association and its Alberta counterpart, health experts and the Alberta New Democratic Party – say it will weaken an already overburdened health system and could contravene the Canada Health Act.
As part of United Conservative Party’s plan to overhaul the provincial health system, it has leaned into the private sector, specifically the use of chartered surgical facilities. These facilities are central to allegations facing Ms. Smith’s government of political interference in health contracts.
The UCP has never floated changes of this magnitude to the physician working model until now, though details of the legislation, which has not been tabled, are still uncertain.
Mr. Jones told reporters on Wednesday that the scope of the hybrid model could actually be “broader than surgical activity.” He said it could include other doctors, such as family physicians, but did not provide specifics.
“But the implications are probably most significant for surgical activity,” he said. “The province is mindful that we need to ensure that we have access and work force in our public system.”
He added that safeguards to protect public health care, such as mandating physicians to serve in the public system for a specified period of time or restricting private practice to evenings and weekends, have been implemented in other jurisdictions.
The draft legislation obtained by The Globe, while not final, did not specify that the hybrid system was specific to surgeons and other surgical professionals. The confidential draft referred generally to physicians.
It does contain clauses that would give the government the power to decide which services, including within particular practice areas or specialties, may be billed privately, in addition to any other requirements or restrictions for participation.
The clauses, states the draft legislation, are to ensure “the adequate provision of insured health services.”
Ms. Smith, in the social-media video, said simply spending more money in the public system “won’t work” and is not a financially sustainable solution without raising taxes or charging health care premiums.
Margot Burnell, president of the Canadian Medical Association, said in a Wednesday statement that Ms. Smith’s comments are contradictory.
“Premier Smith claims that simply injecting more money into the health system will not improve access to care,” Dr. Burnell said. “Yet that is exactly what the government is proposing: injecting more funds. Only this time, they’re coming directly from patients’ pockets and going into a parallel private health system.”