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Premier Daniel Smith often puts controversial beliefs aside when faced with opposition.
But we’re rapidly learning that these ideas never go away. When the time is right, they will come back.
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Mr. Smith has expressed distrust of traditional medicine. The government is currently trying to reorganize the role of doctors in the name of system restructuring.
One of the “pillars” of the new health system is a specific mandate for primary care.
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UCP is putting nurse practitioners and perhaps naturopathic doctors in this pillar.
In both cases, primary care physicians are angry and concerned that nurses are not providing enough primary care and that naturopathic doctors have no place at all in the primary system.
But the government will go further. There is a new pay agreement for nurses and their practitioners.
Nurses with master’s degrees and extensive experience are extremely valuable.
But Dr. Paul Parks, president of the Alberta Medical Association, said the government should focus on supporting family physicians and their practices rather than bringing untrained people into primary care. .
“Nurses, frankly, cannot replace family physicians,” Parks said.
Health Minister Adriana Lagrange delivered another shock to the system on Monday when she met with Dr. Rob Ross, president of the Alberta Naturopathic Doctors Association.
“It was really nice to meet Dr. Rob Ross… to discuss the role they play in primary care,” Lagrange said.
“People visit naturopathic doctors for a variety of health-related purposes, including primary care, overall well-being, and treatment of disease.”
Dr. John Meddings, former dean of the U of C Cummings School of Medicine, said Lagrange’s comments were “simply appalling.”
“This (naturopathy) is not primary care. It is awful that the Minister of Health can even vaguely hint that this has a role in our health system.
“Believing in things that don’t exist seems to define our government these days.”
Naturopathy focuses on treating chronic diseases without drugs, bringing the body back into “balance” and promoting self-healing. Although this profession is recognized as a self-regulated profession in Alberta, this service is not covered by public health insurance.
The story of naturopathic physicians directly involved in the primary care system is new. Lagrange clearly wants his words to stick. She mentioned primary care twice in the same tweet.
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The government wants to add more providers to the system. Anyone is suitable for the job, as long as they are adequately qualified and have public insurance.
At the same time, Tuesday’s report said some nurses could lose their jobs as functions shift away from AHS.
This government doesn’t like or trust the big power centers in the public sector.
This is one reason why AHS is no longer the primary health authority. There will only be one out of four.
Similarly, physicians and their Alberta Medical Association form a powerful and influential power center. Doctors had gained a lot of trust from the public after the government canceled their salary contracts in 2020.
The entry of new participants, especially nurses, will tend to dilute the role of physicians as the sole provider of primary care and will even make the two groups compete.
The government prefers to call the overall health reform decentralization, but it sounds like fragmentation into smaller, more manageable groups.
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Mr. Smith’s other long-term plan, the Alberta Pension, was put on hold during the May election. Now it is in force again, and no matter how much public opposition or negative public opinion piles up, the UCP will not be stopped.
Bill 2, currently before Parliament, states that no deal can be reached with Ottawa without a referendum.
That’s reassuring. However, as the NDP continues to say, there is no guarantee in this bill that a referendum will bind the government.
Overall, the bill appears to give the UCP a path to lose the referendum but get back into the pension business later.
That’s Smith’s idea. They will be back again.
Don Blade’s column appears regularly in the Herald.
X: @donbraid
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