Alta. gov't fires health board over scandal

[RedHot25]

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...725?hub=Canada

Alberta Health Minister Dave Han fired the board of one of the province's health regions Wednesday after a scathing report found bureaucratic turf wars and confusion led to a nightmarish compromise in patient safety.
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He made the comment after the province's Health Quality Council released its findings into reports of poor equipment sterilization and the outbreak of an antibiotic resistant superbug at St. Joseph's General Hospital in Vegreville, east of Edmonton, in March.
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The problems included medical tools sterilized with tap water, equipment being re-used after a quick wipe, scant training of staff, unsterilized equipment trucked around in employees' personal cars, dirty floor mats and window ledges, examination tables not wiped between patients and, in one hospital, a huge hole in the wall between the decontamination room and the sterilization room.

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The facility is run by volunteers and is known as a faith-based hospital. It works under a separate master agreement with the province. The East Central Health Region, however, also has responsibility under different legislation to run the hospital.

That was the wellspring of the problem, said Dr. John Cowell of the Health Quality Council.

[RedHot25]

No one is concerned over this? Now there is a lawsuit pending...and talk that Steddy Eddie might have known things weren't the greatest at that hospital beforehand...?

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Albe...72048-sun.html

Premier Ed Stelmach won't discuss whether his constituency office knew about an outbreak of infectious disease at the hospital in Vegreville when it happened in 2003.

That's because the province is facing legal action from Vegreville resident Connie Marcinkoski.

She has phone records indicating she contacted Stelmach's constituency office for 16 minutes in October 2003, a month after the outbreak was confirmed at St. Joseph's Hospital.

Her father, Robert Bruce, later died from pneumonia related to the disease, a particularly invasive form of streptococcus.

"A lady had called, expressed a concern. The matter now, apparently, from what I hear today ... a certain individual is taking it to the courts, so no further comment on that," Stelmach said.

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The premier's position on when his office knew about the outbreak has not been consistent.

[SeeGeeWhy]

Originally Posted by RedHot25

No one is concerned over this? Now there is a lawsuit pending...and talk that Steddy Eddie might have known things weren't the greatest at that hospital beforehand...?

Nope, everyone here is very happy that our tax dollars are going towards putting an interchange at every intersection outside of a 10km radius of the Calgary tower, and making sure that every road is 8 lanes wide to ensure a smooth and stress free commute.

Health care? Bah! Who needs that!?