The bureaucracy of Alberta Health Services (AHS) is slowing down the purchase of equipment even when completely funded privately, according to local fundraisers.
The St. Paul and District Hospital Foundation raised money to purchase a replacement cardiac monitoring system for St. Theresa’s Hospital, and have been waiting approval from AHS for over six months, according to Linda Kryzanowski, chairperson of the foundation.
“We have raised funds for a certain piece of equipment and we have to sit and wait and wait and wait, it gets frustrating. And when you get the approval and you have to wait more to finally get the equipment,” said Kryzanowski.
A response from AHS finally arrived by email only after Gladys Boisvert, a member of the foundation, sent emails regarding the unforthcoming approval to numerous people, including MLA Ray Danyluk. Danyluk confirmed that he received the email from Bosivert and that he in turn contacted AHS about the matter.
Kyzanowski read the email that she received from AHS during a phone interview. The message said that AHS will now “fast-track” the request, have a confirmed quote next week, and order the equipment shortly afterward. The delay is “inexcusable” and does not reflect normal turn-about times with in AHS, stated the email.
However, this is not the first time that the foundation has been frustrated by delays in requests to purchase equipment. “This is not an isolated incident,” said Boisvert in her email to Danyluk. Last year the foundation waited nine months for approval to purchase a colposcope for the obstetrician/gynecologist to do procedures in St. Paul rather than women having to travel to Edmonton.
It has become a new normal in rural Alberta to have to fundraise to buy equipment and then to have to sit and wait “forever” for approval from AHS, Boisvert said by phone interview.
“This is cardiac monitoring equipment and is in what used to be called the Intensive Care Unit but it now is called the Special Care Unit. It monitors people who have been brought in with a possible heart attack,” said Boisvert. Because the current machine is very old it could go down at any time. “Somebody could die while we are sitting with the money to buy a new system in our bank account but we can’t buy it.”
This is another example of how the centralized Alberta Health superboards just don’t work, said Shayne Saskiw, local candidate for the Wildrose Alliance party. “Here we have donated dollars, not taxpayers dollars for medically necessary equipment, and because of this massive bureaucracy, they can’t even get that approved.”
Danyluk said that it is unacceptable for this situation to have happened once but to have happened twice is really disappointing. He said that he was on the phone for hours with AHS on Friday. The solution is, “communication, communication, communication,” he said. Danyluk said he plans to follow up with AHS to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Deb Guerette, director of communications north zone AHS, said that as a result of this incident, the department has initiated an internal review and will be making changes to their procedures.
“It did take too long in this case,” said Guerette. “The contribution of our foundations and auxiliaries are an important part of the health care system in Alberta and we will continue to work to improve our partnership with them.”
