AHS was close to hiring a new CEO: former board member

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The board of Alberta’s health authority had narrowed down the search for a new chief executive officer and were making progress in several areas identified by Premier Danielle Smith to improve patient care before she replaced its members with a single administrator, according to one of the terminated directors.

Tony Dagnone, who was among the 11 Alberta Health Services board members fired this week, said in a Friday interview with The Globe and Mail that they were already taking action in response to issues related to staffing, capacity and wait times. Alberta, like other jurisdictions across Canada, have seen these challenges aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic and more recently by a rise in other respiratory illnesses.

Mr. Dagnone said the former chair, Gregory Turnbull, was spending “countless hours” with Health Minister Jason Copping, Alberta Health and AHS management to find solutions.

But on Thursday, Ms. Smith announced the appointment of John Cowell to the new administrator position and said his focus would be to develop a long-term plan for health care reform, improving ambulance response times and decreasing wait times for emergency rooms and surgeries. Ms. Smith had promised to dismantle the board as part of her successful campaign to lead the United Conservative Party.

Mr. Dagnone pointed to the board’s work in contracting more chartered facilities to do surgical procedures and diagnostics to limit waiting times and expanding the Connect Care program, which provides health care providers with central access to patient information.

The board had also produced a shortlist of three candidates for the CEO position after a lengthy search process, which he said was going to be introduced to stakeholders.

“All that work is just floating down the river now,” said Mr. Dagnone, who declined to name the candidates. “Who would walk into this kind of environment and risk their career?”

Ms. Smith promised during the UCP leadership campaign to hire a new CEO. Her predecessor as premier, Jason Kenney, removed the previous CEO, Verna Yiu, and appointed Mauro Chies as an interim replacement.

On Friday morning, Mr. Dagnone released a scathing open letter to Albertans about what he considers poor leadership from Ms. Smith. He said her attacks on the health system and what he described as a “warped” stance on COVID-19 “is nothing short of borderline dereliction when the lives of AHS staff and Albertans are at stake.”

Last month, Deborah Apps resigned from the board and in her resignation letter said she could not support Ms. Smith’s plans to overhaul the health system its management structure.

The Premier is a vocal opponent of public-health measures, such as vaccine mandates, masking orders and business closures, which were implemented during the pandemic. Ms. Smith has frequently attacked AHS for imposing the restrictions and accused them of manufacturing staff shortages and failing to develop adequate intensive-care capacity.

Rebecca Polak, press secretary to the Premier, said in a statement that the appointment of Dr. Cowell will help to address barriers and delays in AHS services.

”We need to support the exceptional front line staff across our province to do what they do best, and that means reducing bureaucracy and listening to them and to patients,” she said. “This decision was not personal, this is about better outcomes for Albertans, and we are grateful for the work done by the AHS board.”

On Thursday, the province said Dr. Cowell’s appointment was temporary and that a board will be restored in the future. Mr. Copping told a news conference that the advantage to having an administrator is that they can hasten change at AHS because their directive is less broad when compared to a larger board.

Dr. Cowell first served as an administrator in 2013. His predecessor was Janet Davidson, who held the role briefly that same year before becoming Alberta’s deputy health minister until 2015, and now serves as an administrator with the Nova Scotia Health Authority.

Ms. Davidson believes the job description outlined by the Alberta government for the new administrator is flawed.

“It’s not clear that they understand the distinction between governance and management,” she said in an interview. “Governance isn’t micromanagement. Governance is oversight.”

Ms. Davidson said the UCP government looks to be finding ways to gain more control over AHS when they should, instead, be supporting the experts and leaders already in health care to push forward with meaningful change. She added that there was no clear plan identified by the province on Thursday to actually address the problems.

“I don’t think you achieve anything by turfing everybody out, implying that they haven’t done what they’re supposed to do, and then bringing in somebody else and expecting that everything’s all of a sudden going to be wonderful.”