AHS CEO speaks out on queue-jumping
Posted Jun 10, 2011 6:32 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The head of Alberta Health Services said Friday he’s never moved anyone up the wait list for health procedures who didn’t have a legitimate medical reason for the move.
Dr. Chris Eagle made that statement in response to allegations people with close ties to MLA’s were able to jump the queue.
The province’s opposition parties and Tory leadership candidate Alison Redford are calling for an inquiry into the issue.
A 2009 Alberta Health Services memo mentioning possible queue-jumping was written in the early days of AHS, and meant to tackle the possibility of a line jump, according to CEO Dr. Chris Eagle.
He said he doesn’t know of any actual queue jump that caused the memo to be written.
“It’s been a very useful memo to have though, because it provides a very strong support for our staff, so they don’t feel that they’re being pressured when they’re being approached by people inquiring about the navigation of the system,” he said Friday.
“It wasn’t seen as something that was a frequent concern or a big concern,” said AHS Board Chair Ken Hughes of the memo. “What we wanted to do was to put a stake in the sand about our principles.”
Hughes added he was as disgusted as any Albertan when he found out Calgary Flames players skipped the H1N1 flu shot line-up two years ago, but he says the fault lay with rogue employees who were later fired, and not with the system as a whole.
