Anyone still smarting over the chopping of $600,000 by Covenant Health to the Banff Mineral Springs Hospital’s St. Martha’s Place, or angered that seniors that reside there are taking the brunt of cuts will find little solace in the fact that Patrick Dumelie, Convenant’s chief executive officer is getting a salary boost of $147,000 per year.
That sounds bad, given that the Alberta economy is not exactly roaring along after the downturn of several years ago. Worse yet, though, is that Dumelie already makes $826,000; much more than Alberta Health Services CEO Dr. Chris Eagle ($794,000), who is in charge of an organization 17 times larger.
What is wrong with the health care situation in this province? Sure, as Covenant board chair John Brennan says, “dynamic leadership” is needed. But at what cost?
And why is it that virtually any news related to health care is bad? Health Minister Fred Horne canned the entire 10-person AHS health care board of directors when they refused to pull back on forking over millions in bonuses for executives. Half the palliative care staff in Calgary were let go, then brought back after an outrage, there’s an ongoing strike in place at an Edmonton assisted living facility that has no end in sight, lineups at emergencies and for surgeries remain unresolved, the province taking over ambulance services created all manner of chaos, and now this.
Actually, even the idea there is both a Covenant Health and AHS, all under the purview of the health ministry, makes little sense. Former Liberal leader Dr. David Swann has called for uniting the two groups under AHS jurisdiction and it’s hard to argue with the idea that having two CEOs pocketing almost $2 million a year is overboard. Way overboard.
In a province that’s now sporting billions of dollars of deficit in regard to its budget due to the handy “Bitumen Bubble” excuse and is facing putting millions, maybe billions, into flood relief, the idea that those in health care circles feel themselves distanced from the reality of economic hardships is disturbing.
You would hope that those in charge of health care might be somewhat more empathetic when it comes to the plight of others and not throw their casual “who cares” attitude into everyone’s face.
How ridiculous is it that Covenant cut $112,000 in bonuses for Dumelie, only to bump up his salary by $147,000?
Meanwhile, in the Bow Valley, there was debate as to whether Banff Mayor Karen Sorensen is worthy of a bump in pay to $77,000 from $37,000 and recognition that the position is a full-time one?
Clearly the issue of the lack of a sense of reality among health care executives is similar to the one among political leaders – the farther you distance yourself from the regular citizens out there (most of us), the less you can relate to them.
Much like you can bump into your municipal politician while filling up with gas, at a local school or at the grocery store, you have to reach to Edmonton for contact with your MLA or to distant Ottawa to get in touch with your MP.
And like with bigger and more distant governments, the problem often comes down to – and this is obviously the case with health care – you end up spending money like it isn’t your own, to everyone’s detriment.
