NDP attacks province’s decision to appoint deputy minister to oversee AHS

By ANNA SMITH Local Journalism Initiative on January 11, 2025.

asmith@medicinehatnews.com

An announcement earlier this week in regards to new leadership within Alberta Health Services has been met with criticism from the Alberta NDP.

Word from the province stated that the next new provincial health agency, Acute Care Alberta, will be established on Feb 1. Alongside the appointment of the interim president and CEO of Acute Care, Dr. Chris Eagle, the province also announced that Andre Tremblay, deputy minister of Alberta Health, has been appointed interim president and CEO of AHS.

In the interim role, Tremblay will work with AHS leadership to oversee operations, support staff transitions to Primary Care Alberta and establish Acute Care Alberta as a legal entity ahead of its operationalization this spring, said the province.

During this work, Alberta’s government has assured that Albertans will continue to access acute care services as they always have and there will be no impact to frontline health-care workers.

This decision was referred to as “undermining public health care and creating chaos for patients and staff,” by NDP leader Naheed Nenshi, who released a statement following the announcement.

“Danielle Smith and Adriana LaGrange keep attacking acute care by firing CEOs and appointing more insiders, instead of fixing the very real problems Albertans are facing. Emergency rooms across the province are closing and nearly a million Albertans don’t have a family doctor,” said Nenshi.

Nenshi pointed out that this is the fourth board chair the UCP has gone through since 2021.

“Alberta now has six health -care organizations each with their own management layer, and the UCP still cannot get it right. Their incompetence is putting patients at risk,” said Nenshi. “Danielle Smith promised to fix health care in 90 days. That was 810 days ago, and all we’ve seen is a system on the verge of collapse, more new managers for them to blame, and worse patient outcomes. Albertans deserve better than this make-it-up-as-we-go-along chaos.”

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