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Alberta Health Regions Warn New Reforms Will Take Time

Posted on: Wednesday, 13 July 2005, 21:00 CDT

CALGARY (CP) - Alberta health regions were scrambling Wednesday to make plans for a range of "extras" they will be allowed to offer patients willing to pay for them under provincial health reforms announced by Premier Ralph Klein.

Patients expecting to buy upgraded rooms or services may have to wait a long time. "We're crowded for space as it is," said Carol Secondiak, chairwoman of the Palliser Health Region based in Medicine Hat.

Secondiak said her region is waiting for the province to approve some capital expansion plans before it can offer upgraded rooms.

"Our hospitals haven't been upgraded for some time, so we can't implement them right away," she said.

Klein announced Tuesday that health regions can immediately begin offering patients - and charging extra for - items such as top-of-the-line hip replacements and tony hospital rooms.

Klein admitted the changes will be controversial but denied the system penalizes those who don't have deep pockets.

The Chinook Regional Health Authority in Lethbridge faces similar challenges with a current hospital occupancy rate of over 90 per cent, said its chief executive officer.

"The demand and utilization of the beds that we have - the utililization is very high right now," said Pam Whitnack.

"It's hardly a possibility of segregating some of them off and calling them enhanced. I think we're going to be very much into offering the basic health services that everybody's come to appreciate."

For items such as hip replacements and hospital rooms, the province will pay for the basic package and a patient wanting an upgrade will pay the rest.

The enhanced care options were among a number of proposals and plans rolled out by the province to implement what it has dubbed the "third way" to take the best of private and public health and reduce medicare costs and wait lists.

The chief executive of the Capital Health Region in Edmonton said the new options will help its bottom line. Sheila Weatherill said surveys have shown that many patients want private rooms.

"We know if they have to be in the hospital, which most people don't want to do, they would prefer to be in a private room, so we need to make that sort of thing more available," said Weatherill.

"Many people want to have telephone, Internet access and other amenities, and I don't see that as affecting basic, insured health care," she said.

To meet the high demand for accommodation, Capital Health will be announcing plans in the next two weeks for a "special purpose residence" to be built near the University hospital.

"We know there's a real market for this. We run a residence right now for patients who are there being accompanied by family members," Weatherill explained.

"We're in a very old building and we will be launching a plan in partnership with a developer to build something that will actually be like a hotel," she said, noting the 100-unit facility will be run by a hotel chain.

The Calgary Health Region intends to take the summer to evaluate the impact of the new moves by the province.

"We hope to come up with some decisions or positions by the fall," said spokesman James Finstad.

Finstad said Albertans have always had the option of paying a small fee to make their hospital stays a little bit more pleasant, and the new regulations simply expand on that concept.

"There always has been that sort of thing," he said. "Private rooms and telephone service have always been available."

Source: Canadian Press

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