Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government hasn’t quite taken to posting unexpected proclamations in ALL CAPS on Truth Social at 2 a.m., but Premier Danielle Smith’s announcement yesterday that Thursday’s budget would have an additional $1.4 billion in it for “physician recruitment, training, compensation and development” was trending that way.
“We are making the largest investment in physicians in Alberta’s history, backing the doctors who care for our families and taking real action to improve care provincewide,” the premier enthused in a canned quote in the government’s press release.
“This record funding will help pay for treatments, appointments, services and training so that Albertans can get the care they deserve,” chipped in Adriana LaGrange, Alberta’s former health minister who is now one of the UCP’s Gang of Four holders of quarters of the health portfolio. “This investment in Alberta physicians will support our continued efforts to build a sustainable, modern health care system that delivers better care for Albertans.”
Ms. Smith and Ms. LaGrange repeated much the same kind of optimistic folderol during a lunch-hour news conference at a southeast Edmonton facility operated by Roman-Catholic-Church-owned Covenant Health. Former Progressive Conservative Premier and Covenant board chair Ed Stelmach made a cameo appearance at the presser, during which Ms. Smith suggested the new facility should be named after him.
If nothing else, all this numerical good cheer obviously reflects real concern within the UCP’s strategic brain trust about the public perception of the ongoing capacity crisis in the provincial health care system and UCP legislation that critics assert risks destroying public health care, and not just in Alberta.
Better get out there with some good health-care news, someone obviously decided, or at least some good sounding news!
And it all sounds very hopeful indeed. However, the response from the Alberta Medical Association, which bargains collectively for the province’s physicians, was wary. The association didn’t exactly say, ‘What the hell? First we heard about it!’ But, while more politely worded, it did convey the same sentiment.
Ahem, the statement began, “the AMA was not notified in advance of this announcement and must review the government’s figures to understand how they have been calculated, allocated or linked to physician compensation and services.” Nevertheless, the statement went on, “we are encouraged by the government’s focus on the investment required to sustain the system.”
The AMA statement was not attributed to President Brian Wirzba, but it certainly crossed his desk before it was released into the wild. Physicians in private practice also must absorb the increasing costs of paying, rent, utilities and staff salaries, Dr. Wirzba reminded the CBC when its reporter called about it.
“The AMA was pleased to hear the premier and minister reference upcoming negotiations with the association and describe a common understanding of the importance of a constructive relationship,” the statement added cautiously before members were advised that it’ll get back to them when someone has figured out what the government’s actually up to.
“We take government at its word, and the AMA looks forward to negotiating in good faith to achieve a fair, sustainable agreement that supports physicians, their practices and the patients they care for,” the association said with what sounded to me like a note of skepticism. “We are hopeful that given our shared interests, the parties will be able to reach a timely agreement once negotiations commence.”
Reading between the lines, the key phrase in the AMA message is “upcoming negotiations.” In other words, in the great tradition of mystery fiction and government press releases, two genres of literature that share certain qualities in common, not everything is exactly as it appeared at the lunch-hour news conference.
The NDP came close to the heart of the matter in a statement from Sharif Haji, the Opposition critic for primary and preventative health services, a title that echoes Ms. LaGrange’s official portfolio name. “The announcement today by the premier is unclear as to whether this new money will just cover a new contract with existing doctors or will see a real gain in doctor-to-patient numbers.”
Indeed, it’s not clear if this is new money at all. When the Smith Government is clearly signalling that the Thursday’s provincial budget will include a substantial deficit of $6 to $8 billion or even more, any new money to pay Paul is likely to come from Peter’s pocket.
Probably, this is a bit of administrative sleight of hand in which the bulk of the seemingly fantastic sum earmarked to recruit new doctors will be used to finance the deal the government is going to have to negotiate with the AMA anyway.
“As a result of these investments, more physicians are choosing to practise in the province than ever before,” the government’s news release said.
“The reality,” said Mr. Haji, “is we have fewer doctors per capita in Alberta than we did when the UCP government came to power.”
Of course, both statements can be true at the same time.