Centralized health care continues to be main obstacle to improving patient outcomes: Forsyth

CALGARY, AB (October 17, 2013): In response to news of Alberta Health Services CEO Chris Eagle stepping down from his position as president and CEO, Wildrose Health Critic Heather Forsyth made the following statement:

“Despite AHS CEO and president Chris Eagle remaining with AHS for another year, I was not surprised to learn he has made the decision to step down from his post.  While chief executive officers come and go, one thing has remained the same since the birth of AHS, and that’s the PC government.

“And while Health Minister Fred Horne continues to throw AHS officials under the bus, he refuses to jump with them and accept his ministerial responsibility for a health care system that is underperforming.

“A new CEO will be unable to do much to improve patient care and outcomes with a PC government that is unwilling to listen to Albertans, and prefers confrontation rather than collaboration with the front line health professionals who hold our entire health system together. The centralized approach of the PC government to health care that pumps money to the bureaucracy and away from patient care continues to be the main obstacle to improving patient outcomes.

“Albertans deserve a government that will contribute new and innovative policies that put patients first, and a government that can reduce the bureaucratic overburden that is taking money away from the front lines.”