With the province looking to split up Alberta Health Services with new legislation tabled earlier this week, public health experts in Alberta say they still have questions about how public health will work when AHS is dismantled, and patients fall through the cracks.
“While there’s an agency tasked with mental health and addictions, mental health and addictions are also delivered in acute care environments and primary care environments, so there’s a lot of unknowns around what’s going to fit where,” explained Lorian Hardcastle, a health law professor at the Cumming School of Medicine.
RELATED: Alberta tables bill to split AHS into different agencies
While Alberta’s health minister says all agencies will ultimately report to her, Hardcastle says she still has questions about who will be in charge of what, even when it comes to day-to-day public health.
“Restaurants, daycares, apartment buildings, these are all places where public health issues can arise, and it isn’t clear if the government intends to manage this centrally, or the extent to which Alberta Health Services is going to carry on with some of those activities,” said Hardcastle.
CityNews reached out to the province for clarification on where public health stands in an email and they say “Discussions are ongoing for this important file, and the Minister of Health will have more to say next week.”
Last year the province passed legislation that gives power to the cabinet during times of public health emergency. Hardcastle says the reasons behind it are part of the province’s push for centralized power, and partly because of the pandemic.
“I do think it is partly a response to the pandemic, the premier has certainly scapegoated AHS and some of its leaders.”