Dave Cournoyer
The very prolific auditor general released his latest review of numerous provincial government issues including persistent problems with long-term care. Referring to a similar review from 2005 auditor general Merwin Saher says Alberta Health Services has made progress on recommendations from nearly a decade ago but still fails to properly monitor and report on long-term care.
Saher says the province spent $910 million on long-term care in 2013 yet AHS doesn’t verify whether patient care is consistently provided to provincial standards. Also responsibility within AHS departments is vague and fragmented and information is not used to its potential.
“The long-term care system now has good mechanisms in place to say what should happen in each home and with each individual. It does not have good mechanisms to verify that daily care for each individual is carried out as planned…. Long-term care is largely short-term care for seniors who are too frail and too ill to be cared for in the community…. If long-term care delivery isn’t done right it can have significant negative impact on the cost and capacity of the rest of the health-care system” the report states.
Health Minister Stephen Mandel responded to the report saying “improving long-term care is a top priority” for the province. However opposition parties were quick to denounce the province.
“If the auditor general ever decides he wants to save paper he’ll switch to reporting on what the government gets right which will take about five pages” says Liberal Party Leader Raj Sherman.
“The PC failures on long-term care are a direct cause of the health-care access crisis” he added.
There are currently 14370 beds in 170 long-term care facilities in Alberta. Of those facilities half are directly operated by the AHS a quarter are run by not-for-profit organizations and a quarter by for-profit companies under AHS contract.
