Let me give you an example of how government works.
Awhile ago the government needed a piece of equipment in a Northern Alberta town. It was determined that they had a surplus piece of equipment in Southern Alberta so they paid to have the (very) old piece of equipment transported up to the other town. Sounds good right? they saved money by utilizing surplus equipment rather than buying new.
Problem is that the cost to get the piece of equipment up there was just slightly more than it would have cost to buy a new piece of equipment. If they had bought the new piece they would have spent about 10% more but they now would have had two pieces of equipment, one brand new. That's not even taking into account the time spent tracking down the surplus piece of equipment, getting it declared surplus, tendering out the job, etc. In the end it was probably the same cost or maybe even cheaper to buy new.
I don't blame the person who did this, they are directed to reuse whenever possible. They have nothing to gain by trying to change the system, if they did change the system their job might not be necessary.
Another example: MRI's
Wait times for MRI's have been getting better but they are still pretty long. I had to get an MRI a few years ago, rather than wait 6-9 months I chose to pay to get one done. I called up the clinic and booked an MRI to be done 2 days later, I think it cost me $750.00. When I was there I was asking the tech how I got in so quick and he said that the machine sits idle a lot of the time.
If AHS was to buy up this idle time you could drastically cut down wait times. I don't have any stats but I can't imagine that a hospital charges AHS much less, probably more, to do an MRI than $750.00. They would be doing a bulk buy of time on a short notice basis and would probably get the clinic to give them a way better deal. I don't know about you but if I was told I can wait for 6-9 months to get a "free" MRI or I could go on a waiting list where they would give me 24-48 hours notice and I would get in, between paying customers, in about a week I would choose option #2. Who cares if someone paid to get in front of me if it's going to cut down my wait time in the end?
Problems with this:
1) People would be protesting that the government is paying private clinics and they are making a profit.
2) People would be outraged that someone was paying and getting to the front of the line while the poor people have to wait.
The result? We aren't allowed to pay the private clinic and everyone has to wait longer and it costs more. That's not even factoring in doctors visits in the months waiting for the MRI or the savings from diagnosing and treating in the early stages of a problem.
There is plenty of "cost cutting" and "waste" that can be addressed.
/rant
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