New health care controversy
Posted Mar 19, 2011 8:34 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Mount Royal University Political Scientist David Taras says it is becoming increasingly difficult for the Stelmach Government to dodge calls for a public inquiry into repeated allegations of intimidation in Alberta’s health care system.
Revelations that a Calgary psychiatrist was threatened with his job, and that, higher ups in the provincial government weren’t happy with a public stand the physician took in 2008, has sparked calls from opposition parties for an inquiry.
Taras calls the latest allegations and a letter Dr. Lloyd Maybaum “a smoking gun.”
Three years ago, Dr. Maybaum was critical of the Provincial Government for plans to cut a 76 bed, dedicated psychiatric wing from the new South Calgary hospital. Some of the plans for the hospital, scheduled to partially open next year, were scuttled because of a $160-Million-dollar cost over run.
Now a smaller 33 bed unit is in the works for the new hospital. But Dr. Maybaum warns that the beds come at the expense of the closure of 20 spaces at Rockyview Hospital.
Dr. Maybaum received a letter from the head of psychiatry for the Calgary Health Region after his comments in 2008, warning him his position as physician leader at the new facility was in jeopardy because of his comments and that politicians in the upper echelons of government weren’t happy with his public comments.
For his part, Premier Ed Stelmach insists an in-camera review of the controversy by the Health Quality Council of Alberta is the best avenue to review the allegations.
