UCP MLA questions AHS salaries, claims province isn’t getting its money’s worth

EDMONTON – A UCP MLA has set off an online firestorm after claiming the province isn’t getting its money’s worth from Alberta Health Services (AHS), directly referencing the pay of its president and CEO.

Dr. Verna Yiu, the head of AHS, is known for delivering sobering truths to Albertans during this pandemic alongside Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw.

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However, on Saturday, Shane Getson, the UCP representative for Lac St. Anne-Parkland, took to Facebook, apparently in response to a recent discovery of Yiu’s salary, listed in a CBC article.

“For this kind of money, and the amount we pour into our system I think we need to be getting more bang for our buck when it comes to resource planning,” Getson wrote on Facebook.

“ICU bed levels that were available for the public dropped unacceptably low coming into the cold and flu season and a prediction of the fourth wave. Hence the ‘crunch and strain’ on the system. The wave hit, but AHS didn’t staff the beds adequately to meet their own predictions?”

Before the weekend, Alberta had 243 COVID patients in the ICU.

AHS responded to the MLA’s comments, saying getting more ICU beds to fight the fourth wave is easier said than done.

“ICU patients require highly-skilled, specialized physicians and nurses, and the level of care is extremely complex,” the health authority said in a statement.

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“Our frontline physicians, nurses, and staff are understandably exhausted after 19 months of pandemic response. There is a limit to how much they can do. Because of this, there is a limit to how many additional spaces we can open to provide patient care.”

CityNews reached out to Getson asking him to clarify his comments and how exactly he expected AHS to staff and prepare hundreds of more ICU beds for a fourth wave that the UCP government itself said it did not anticipate.

Getson has yet to respond, however, his Facebook post said he will have more to say on this issue in the coming days.

There have been no changes to the leadership of AHS.

— Alberta Health Services (@AHS_media) September 26, 2021

AHS, meantime, says there has been no change to its leadership.