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Daveography

Daveography

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Not a fan of the idea of a private non-union facility, but it's a proposal.


Location (both red and orange lots):
1597076959109.png
 
"
  • Intends to seek a contract with Alberta Health Services (AHS) that will ensure the private facility is economically viable and also make it prohibitively expensive for a future government to shut it down;
  • Is pursuing a lobbying strategy to secure support from Shandro and senior health and infrastructure bureaucrats in order to present AHS, which is responsible for delivering health care in the province, with a project that has been effectively approved;
  • Plans to privately manage the facility using non-unionized staff, while running operating theatres for up to 23 hours a day and potentially increase the number of surgical procedures done to 10,000 a year from 6,000.
"
:(

Translating from UCP doublespeak:
  • Privatize the profits, socialize the losses.
  • Make shady deals to make sure things get approved, as is par for the course for this government.
  • Overwork and underpay staff in order to increase profit margins (that the province and it's citizens won't see a dime of).
Sorry to get political on this forum. Losing a parking lot is great and all, but not what it could mean for our healthcare.
 
@EtoV Everything about this proposal is going to be political, so no need to apologize.

The fact that Ericksen is involved really isn't helping with the "Used Car Party" moniker.
 
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EtoV said:
"
  • Intends to seek a contract with Alberta Health Services (AHS) that will ensure the private facility is economically viable and also make it prohibitively expensive for a future government to shut it down;
  • Is pursuing a lobbying strategy to secure support from Shandro and senior health and infrastructure bureaucrats in order to present AHS, which is responsible for delivering health care in the province, with a project that has been effectively approved;
  • Plans to privately manage the facility using non-unionized staff, while running operating theatres for up to 23 hours a day and potentially increase the number of surgical procedures done to 10,000 a year from 6,000.
"
:(

Translating from UCP doublespeak:
  • Privatize the profits, socialize the losses.
  • Make shady deals to make sure things get approved, as is par for the course for this government.
  • Overwork and underpay staff in order to increase profit margins (that the province and it's citizens won't see a dime of).
Sorry to get political on this forum. Losing a parking lot is great and all, but not what it could mean for our healthcare.
Click to expand...
Sorry, but the knee jerk reaction that seems to happen every time the word 'private' clinics comes out is tiresome. Most people don't realize that there are many European countries that have private clinics providing 'publicly funded' health services. Switzerland healthcare system is entirely private but all citizens must have private healthcare insurance to cover services when required. The reality is that there are more efficient ways of delivering public healthcare services, in fact, we need to start looking at these as the current system is not sustainable.
 
cmd uw said:
Sorry, but the knee jerk reaction that seems to happen every time the word 'private' clinics comes out is tiresome. Most people don't realize that there are many European countries that have private clinics providing 'publicly funded' health services. Switzerland healthcare system is entirely private but all citizens must have private healthcare insurance to cover services when required. The reality is that there are more efficient ways of delivering public healthcare services, in fact, we need to start looking at these as the current system is not sustainable.
Click to expand...
Sure, there models with levels of public funding of private health services, but at this time we don't really know too many details about how this one will be run. So the question then becomes, why are we getting these massive red flags right off the bat? If this version is supposed to be a better more streamlined service, why is the public assuming all risk? Why does lobbying need to be involved? Why do they need to circumvent healthcare unions that maintain competitive wages and benefits for their employees, in order to be profitable?

If these are base assumptions we are going into this deal under, what are we missing that actually makes this a better deal for Albertans?
 
EtoV said:
Sure, there models with levels of public funding of private health services, but at this time we don't really know too many details about how this one will be run. So the question then becomes, why are we getting these massive red flags right off the bat? If this version is supposed to be a better more streamlined service, why is the public assuming all risk? Why does lobbying need to be involved? Why do they need to circumvent healthcare unions that maintain competitive wages and benefits for their employees, in order to be profitable?

If these are base assumptions we are going into this deal under, what are we missing that actually makes this a better deal for Albertans?
Click to expand...
Red flags, you mean the media making it sound like 'lobbyists' only exist for these types of proposals. Lobbyists exist for every industry/business and they've been around for a long time in this Province. Also, privately-run clinics have existed for decades in Alberta. Your typical family medical clinic is Exhibit A. Run by private professional corporations (usually a group of physicians), which lease their own space (or own), and hire their own staff, providing medical services paid for by the Province. I don't know why adding other medical procedures to this is that big of a deal.
 
@cmd uw For me, I have zero faith in this current government's ability to deliver anything that will truly benefit all Albertans, and especially not in a transparent and accountable manner. Their track record before COVID was already abysmal, and even with COVID our provincial recovery is lagging behind other provinces. I don't know why we would expect any different on their healthcare file.
 
cmd uw said:
Red flags, you mean the media making it sound like 'lobbyists' only exist for these types of proposals. Lobbyists exist for every industry/business and they've been around for a long time in this Province. Also, privately-run clinics have existed for decades in Alberta. Your typical family medical clinic is Exhibit A. Run by private professional corporations (usually a group of physicians), which lease their own space (or own), and hire their own staff, providing medical services paid for by the Province. I don't know why adding other medical procedures to this is that big of a deal.
Click to expand...
Does it not concern you the precedent they are setting if they allow them to write a contract that the government will have to foot the bill for if its not profitable, and will not be able to exit out of, regardless of level of service? Does it not concern you the willingness to circumvent our unions in order to maintain profitability for someone else? The main issue is the effects and implications of not just being "private", but also "for-profit". The profit isn't coming from a better level of service. Sure clinics are private entities, but they have set rates at which they can charge out AHS for services. A big selling point in this situation seems to be its profitability. Assuming this profit is above and beyond what a private clinic would normally get, Where is that money coming from? Well apparently the red flags that I listed is how. We don't obviously know how this will actually function, and it may be similar to other private clinics, but the optics around this should be enough to start raising flags.

I think this article further explains in more detail some of the concerns people such as myself have:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmo...urgical-facility-in-alberta-history-1.5679074
 
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