EDMONTON, AB: The NDP government’s reported plan to buy out Dynalife and end private lab services in the province shows Health Minister Sarah Hoffman cares more about ideology than managing costs throughout our health care system, the Wildrose Official Opposition said today.
The anticipated move to buy out Dynalife at the end of its current sole-sourced contract in 2022 follows the decision by Hoffman to publicly control laundry services rather than save money and focus healthcare dollars on patient care.
Wildrose Leader Brian Jean said the government should release the full business case for this decision to show that it will not reduce service quality and increase costs.
“It appears the NDP just can’t seem to help themselves when it comes to choosing centralization over common sense,” Wildrose Leader Brian Jean said. “Since forming government, the NDP have mishandled the provision of lab services for Edmonton and northern Alberta and brought instability across the region.”
Wildrose has maintained that rejection of private delivery of public services out of hand only leads to higher costs and narrow thinking.
“Reflexively shutting out private operators leads to higher costs and further layers of bureaucracy throughout our health care system,” Wildrose Shadow Health Minister Drew Barnes said. “Before proceeding with the expensive deal that takes away an effective delivery model of lab services, Minister Hoffman should try to use common sense instead of just ideology.”