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2009 Nov 05 (Thu)

Medical Tent at Stollery Children’s Hospital

Kevin questions the decision to take down the pandemic tent at the Stollery Children's Hospital considering the threat of an H1N1 pandemic.

 

1659 Alberta Hansard November 2, 2009

Dr. Taft: Thanks, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of Health and Wellness threw Alberta’s health system into confusion and crisis when he dissolved the health regions and the Alberta Cancer Board. We’ve been receiving increasingly panicked calls from cancer patients who urgently need the H1N1 vaccine. Because of chemotherapy some of them literally cannot wait until tomorrow, and they cannot stand in line for hours. My question is to the Minister of Health and Wellness. Does he understand that dissolving the Alberta Cancer Board created a leadership vacuum in which nobody considered the high-risk needs of cancer patients?

Mr. Liepert: Mr. Speaker, the Alberta Health Services Board has a mandate to provide equitable health care across this province; it doesn’t matter where you live. That will be the same policy and priority that will take place with the H1N1 vaccination program. The member should listen attentively tomorrow when Alberta Health Services rolls out its plan.

Dr. Taft: Well, in a bizarre example of how one hand doesn’t know what the other hand is doing in the department of health, because this minister created total chaos, the pandemic tent at the Stollery children’s hospital, having been set up 18 months ago, was taken down last week just as the pandemic hit. To the Minister of Health and Wellness: how does he explain leaving up the pandemic tent at the Stollery for 18 months when there was no pandemic and then taking it down the first week the pandemic hits?

Mr. Liepert: Well, as a matter of fact, Mr. Speaker, it was the day that I visited the University emergency, last Wednesday, when the head of emerg at the University was proudly showing me the fact that the tent was gone and construction was going to start the next day. If the member is going to suggest here that he doesn’t like that idea, well, then, I suggest he should say so because it’s in his constituency, and there are a lot of constituencies around this province that would gladly have health care construction tomorrow.

Dr. Taft: Mr. Speaker, the physicians from that department who were talking to me are saying, quote: it is beyond stupidity to take down a pandemic tent that has been set up for 18 months the first week the pandemic hits. Will this Minister of Health and Wellness take steps to ensure that that pandemic tent is set up somewhere else, where it can be used for the purposes it was paid for?

Mr. Liepert: Well, Mr. Speaker, this just shows that this member doesn’t even know what’s going on in his own constituency because the tent was never set up for pandemic purposes. The tent was set up for emergency services at the Stollery children’s hospital. Now, with the announcement that this government is going to proceed with the construction of the emergency services at Stollery hospital, is this member suggesting that we should stop just because we have a vaccination program going? I suggest he should stand up and say so if that’s what his view is.

 

 

Date: Thu Nov 5 20:10:22 MST 2009 Author: Rebecca IP: 68.149.137.22