EDMONTON, AB (October 23, 2015): The announcement of a newly appointed Alberta Health Services (AHS) super board moves our province further away from a more responsive and cost effective delivery model, the Wildrose Official Opposition said today.
The past super board was unable to control expenses and waste, resulting in higher wait times, decreased patient outcomes and less local autonomy for communities across the province.
“Wildrose has never believed in a centralized super board to govern health care for the entire province,” Wildrose Shadow Health Minister Drew Barnes said. “One only has to go back a few years to see how dysfunctional, ineffective and costly the super board was under the previous government.”
Advocacy of more local authority, autonomy and power of decision making have been key Wildrose principles.
“Our province has a bloated and underperforming health care system, through no fault of front line workers,” Barnes said. “Going back to a failed board governance board model will do nothing to solve these problems.”
Wildrose will continue to advocate for a health care system decentralized over time, including consultation with front-line workers and health care experts.