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My family's experience with private delivery of joint replacement dates back to 2006. #abhealth [1/13]
Then only 24 years old, my brother underwent a Birmingham hip replacement surgery at the Health Resources Centre, a for-profit surgery clinic converted from the old Grace Hospital in Calgary's Hillhurst community. [2/13]
At the time, it was performing around one-third of such surgeries in Calgary. [3/13]
I can only imagine that John's relative youthfulness made him a preferred candidate for the private clinic, which billed the Alberta government by the surgery and was incentivized to prefer simpler cases. [4/13]
After surgery, John suffered an episode of a dangerous, chronic, genetic white blood cell disease he had managed for nearly a decade — and which was the originating cause of his hip bone damage some 9 years earlier. [5/13]
Informed that he urgently needed an injection of the somewhat expensive medication that managed the illness, the clinic staff initially refused, claiming they couldn't find it. [6/13]
Realizing the consequences of their mistake, the assigned doctor reluctantly acquiesced, but not without griping that this surgery should have been performed at a public hospital. It seemed that the ideal, profitable patient had become more of a drain than expected. [7/13]
One year later, the government's Evaluation Report pronounced the Project a success for improving outcomes without raising costs. [8/13] https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/0778534995
Three years after that, in 2010, the clinic went bankrupt and AHS had to bail it out of receivership proceedings to keep it open. [9/13] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/private-calgary-clinic-faces-bankruptcy-1.900875
It turned out that after the public system atrophied under Klein-era cutbacks in the 1990s, the private clinic was simply too necessary to fail. [10/13] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-pays-for-private-clinic-s-receiver-1.900873
Whatever private-sector efficiencies had been gained, it seemed, may actually have accrued through the ultimate socialization of privately-incurred debts. [11/13]
Health delivery privatization proponents have referenced this joint replacement experience as the marquis success of their position. (See Ronald Kustra, https://albertaviews.ca/allow-private-healthcare/) [12/13]
![Health delivery privatization proponents have referenced this joint replacement experience as the marquis success of their position. (See Ronald Kustra, https://albertaviews.ca/allow-private-healthcare/) [12/13]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EfG-iByVoAAXdRn.png "Health delivery privatization proponents have referenced this joint replacement experience as the marquis success of their position. (See Ronald Kustra, https://albertaviews.ca/allow-private-healthcare/) [12/13]")
If this is what success looks like, I'm really afraid to see what happens if the present thrust fails. [End]
Epilogue: I originally published this as a Letter to the Editor in @AlbertaViewsMag. My biggest fan, @DerekaThibault asked for a twitter thread form today.
