Phillips, Neudorf spar over health care comments

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on May 12, 2023.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

She says, he says and someone else isn’t available to say anything.
Lethbridge West NDP candidate Shannon Phillips on Thursday called out UCP candidate for Lethbridge East Nathan Neudorf over a comment made at Monday’s Lethbridge East candidates forum at the Lethbridge Public Library regarding use of Emergency room services at Chinook Regional Hospital.
Neudorf, also on Thursday, issued a rebuttal saying claims he doesn’t support public health care are false.
At her conference, Phillips showed media present – The Herald attended via Zoom – a video from Monday’s forum that she said makes “absolutely clear Danielle Smith and the UCP want you to pay to see a doctor.”
She pointed out a comment Neudorf made in answer to a question from the floor which was first answered by NDP candidate Rob Miyashiro.
Neudorf told the forum Smith did make provocative comments about the Alberta health care system years ago when she was “paid to be provocative and start conversations about different things.”
He pointed out his wife, an Emergency room nurse at Chinook Regional Hospital who often works triage, “sees an awful lot unfortunate misuse and sometimes even abuse of our health care system. . .maybe if somebody had to pay for that, they’d think twice about going to the Emergency for something that’s not an emergency.”
He used as examples a pregnancy test or a stomach ache that a person’s “had for maybe three weeks.”
That statement transcribed from the video is slightly different than the quote provided to media in an NDP release and repeated by Phillips which reads “maybe if people had to pay for emergency room visits, they might think twice about going to the emergency room for something that is not an emergency.”
Neudorf said at the forum Smith has signed a 10-year contract with the federal government health care funding that binds Alberta to the Canada Health Act that doesn’t allow any province to charge for any of those services governed by the Canada Health Act which includes a family doctor, trips to the hospital and Emergency “and many surgeries and many other things, as well.”
Neudorf added “that is not just a promise. . .it is a contract. It is required by law.”
Phillips said Lethbridge is a city in which thousands of residents have lost a family doctor and have no choice but to go to Emergency for health care. Lethbridge, she added is “a community that has experienced a massive health care crisis due to the loss of primary care physicians authored by the UCP.
“And now the deputy premier is telling all of us that he thinks we should pay to see a doctor. The deputy premier, second in command to Danielle Smith, thinks that visiting an emergency room is considered an unfortunate abuse of public health care. This is the same UCP MLA who sat on his hands for four years while physicians left Lethbridge. He cheered the UCP’s war on doctors, he justified it, he did nothing,” said Phillips.
“The very problem that Nathan Neudorf thinks you should now pay for is the one he himself created,” said Phillips.
When asked by a member of media why Miyashiro – who left Monday’s forum to be at NDP Rachel Notley’s appearance at the Galt Museum which forced an early end to the face-off – wasn’t available since he and not Phillips is running against Neudorf, the NDP West candidate said she understood Miyashiro “has some fairly pressing family matters today.
“It is nothing new for me to hold the UCP to account; I have been doing it for four years. I have pointed out at every step of the way as we were losing doctors, as our medical services were being reduced here in Lethbridge that Nathan Neudorf bears responsibility for this health care crisis that he helped to author.”
Neudorf had a swift response to Phillips statement, saying that allegations he doesn’t support public health care are “ridiculous.”
“I have always been a strong supporter of public health care. I voted for a budget that added an additional $1 billion to Alberta’s public health care system and my wife is a proud registered nurse,” Neudorf said in a statement to The Herald.
“I also supported the Public Health Guarantee and the $24 billion, 10-year health care funding agreement with the federal government. Because of these efforts, no Albertan will have to pay out-of-pocket to see a doctor or access needed health care services.”
Neudorf also said his NDP opponent Miyashiro hasn’t apologized for sharing a tweet “that politicized the wildfires and evacuations, shamelessly running out of an all-candidates’ debate an hour early, and his past efforts to defund Lethbridge’s police service.
“Mr. Miyashiro isn’t acting like a serious candidate and voters are starting to notice,” Neudorf said. “The NDP central campaign is falling back on fear-and-smear tactics to distract from their candidate’s missteps, but it won’t work,” said Neudorf.

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