Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Lease battle over Calgary seniors facility shows why private operators should not be involved in public health care
The plight of dozens of elderly residents of a Calgary seniors’ residence is another example of why public health care and private market-oriented health-care providers are not a good mix, says United Nurses of Alberta President Heather Smith.
Media reports revealed Monday evening that 29 seniors living in the assisted living wing at Carewest Colonel Belcher facility are scrambling to find new homes after Alberta Health Services and the current private owner of the suites, Chartwell Seniors Housing REIT, failed to agree on a lease renewal agreement.
“This is just another example of the government touting private-sector ‘solutions’ that turn out to be the wrong prescription for curing the ills of the health care system,” said Smith, who noted that back in 2003, the agreement that led to the arrangement between Chartwell and AHS was touted as a model partnership between the public and private sectors.
Smith also called on Alberta Health Services and the government of Alberta to clearly state for the public the true details of contracts signed for all public-private development of continuing care facilities in Alberta. “They need to come clean about the true costs and the real risks of these ‘partnerships,’” she stated.
The 30 beds Chartwell wants to close to make available for more profitable uses are part of a complex of 145 seniors suites operated by the company and 175 nursing home beds run by Carewest, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of AHS. About 20 of the 30 designated assisted living beds are reserved for veterans.
A history published online by the Friends of the Colonel Belcher shows that the old Calgary Health Region committed $20 million in capital costs to the development of the complex and worked closely with the original private-sector partner, Apex Lifestyle Communities Inc. The province donated 26 acres of land for the northwest Calgary complex.
Asked Smith: “How is it that elderly residents, many of them veterans, are now being kicked out of their homes by a private company that benefitted from being part of a complex built with public funds to provide public services?
This situation is reminiscent of what happened at the Health Resource Centre, also in Calgary, a private sector hip and knee surgery clinic that went bankrupt after contracting to provide surgeries for the public health care provider, Smith observed.
“Public health care facilities need to be fully in the public sector, where they are both less expensive to run and where proper staffing levels of Registered Nurses and other professionals can be assured,” Smith said.
She asked: “How many of these public-private service interruptions do we have to see before Alberta’s politicians figure out that this kind of financing just doesn’t work in health care?”
In this case, it appears that the company wants out of the deal simply because it can make more money in the current market by providing more expensive hotel-style services.
Chartwell Chief Operating Officer Richard Noonan bluntly told Calgary media that his company intends to upgrade the 30 suites and rent them out privately for more money. “The profitability of that community will probably improve after we make a significant investment and reposition the suites,” he was quoted as saying in the Calgary Herald. “We’ll be able to charge whatever the market can bear,”
Alberta Health Services already has a backlog of 1,500 seniors awaiting continuing-care accommodations.
Media reported that while the AHS lease on the facility expired in January, Chartwell gave the health board no indication the deal was in jeopardy until about two weeks ago.
“We need to end these expensive and risky experiments with private involvement in what should be fully public facilities,” Smith concluded.
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