{"id":29616,"date":"2014-10-23T13:07:54","date_gmt":"2014-10-23T05:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=29616"},"modified":"2014-10-23T12:06:04","modified_gmt":"2014-10-23T04:06:04","slug":"health-minister-mandel-catches-earful-from-rivals-at-edmonton-whitemud-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/10\/23\/health-minister-mandel-catches-earful-from-rivals-at-edmonton-whitemud-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Health Minister Mandel catches earful from rivals at Edmonton-Whitemud debate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Stephen<\/a>
Stephen Mandel. Photo by Dave Cournoyer \/ Flickr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

EDMONTON\u2014Alberta Health Minister Stephen Mandel caught an earful Wednesday from rival candidates over allowing boutique health-care clinics to operate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to be picked on, but that\u2019s OK,\u201d Mandel told more than 300 people who jammed the pews and doorways of a west-end church at an Edmonton-Whitemud candidate health-care forum.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also agree (with critics) that there\u2019s no place in our system for privatization. They (doctors) can be in or they can be out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mandel responded after four of the five rival candidates criticized his Progressive Conservative government for trumpeting public care while allowing the boutiques to operate.<\/p>\n

Critics say doctors employed by the clinics give clients who pay an annual fee faster access to care while still billing taxpayers for basic health services.<\/p>\n

Liberal candidate Donna Wilson, a professor of nursing, replied, \u201cMr. Mandel I do not feel sorry for you at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have chosen to join that (Progressive Conservative) club. And it is a club that has made our health system cost a great deal more than it ever did\u2014and it is failing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson also reminded the audience that Premier Jim Prentice, who has publicly advocated publicly delivered care, previously sat on a board overseeing a boutique clinic.<\/p>\n

NDP candidate Bob Turner, an oncologist, said \u201cconcierge medicine has to be stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Conservatives have known about this for ages, and they actually tolerate it. In fact, I think they enable it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He pointed out the recent case of questions raised over the Copeman Clinic.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Turner said he had documents that showed a provincial audit of Copeman found \u201cthere is not a clear distinction between (publicly) insured and uninsured services.\u201d He also said the audit also showed the clinic doesn\u2019t record how much time doctors spend delivering private versus public care.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy doesn\u2019t the minister stop it (the Copeman) today?\u201d asked Turner.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has the power to withdraw the billing privileges of the physicians working at the Copeman Clinic. And I think he has lots of evidence to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mandel told the audience he is waiting for reports back on the Copeman situation before taking action.<\/p>\n

William Munsey, the Alberta Party candidate, said he questions whether the concierge clinics are even legal under the Canada Health Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt (the act) provides for universality, and these (clinics), I think, don\u2019t,\u201d said Munsey.<\/p>\n

Rene Malenfant of the Green Party agreed that the clinics need to be either public or private, but can\u2019t work with one foot in each system.<\/p>\n

\u201cA single clinic cannot offer both private and public services,\u201d said Malenfant.<\/p>\n

Tim Grover, the Wildrose candidate, declined to address the issue, saying his party is focused on reducing wait times for care.<\/p>\n

Voters go to the polls on Monday in Edmonton-Whitemud, Calgary-Elbow, Calgary-Foothills, and Calgary-West.<\/p>\n

Premier Jim Prentice is running in Calgary-Foothills, Education Minister Gordon Dirks is trying for a seat in Calgary-Elbow, and a Calgary police sergeant, Mike Ellis, is running for the Tories in Calgary-West.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDMONTON\u2014Alberta Health Minister Stephen Mandel caught an earful Wednesday from rival candidates over allowing boutique health-care clinics to operate. \u201cIt\u2019s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":26773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news-ca","mauthors-dean-bennett","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}