So you quoted this phrase which i assume means you saw or heard someone say that.
care to link that?
I tried a google search and could not find it. the closest was
Speaking with media in Edmonton, Kenney said the government should be making choices to directly support patient care, not building a $600-million lab.
“Our view is that you can get better bang for the taxpayer buck through choice and competition, rather than through a monopoly provider.”
Hoffman fired back that Kenney’s plan is “short-sighted and wrong-headed.”
I couldn't find a labs don't save lives quote anywhere in my admittedly quick search
My apologies Cap, it was more of the general narrative heard from boots on the ground (colleagues close to the situation) and generally on Twitter around canceling a lab that is already planned, which is born from the general sense that labs don't actually help people. My use of quotes was probably too literal.
"Why is the NDP choosing to spend the equivalent of a new hospital on a building that will not actually touch patients or heal people? That will not reduce wait times by one inch? They are just ideologically hostile to the idea of the private sector delivering services more efficiently on behalf of the government."
In addition, it is important to note that a new lab was already being planned/built in Edmonton (with boots on the ground already), and that the current location (a private lab, Dynalife) in downtown Edmonton was outgrown due to increasing demand for lab services.
The project will consolidate eight smaller sites operating in the Edmonton region, many of which are stretched for space. This includes the central lab currently operated by DynaLife on 102 Street downtown.
Yiu said such integration will allow for tests to be processed more quickly and cost effectively, which will lead to shorter wait times for patients and health professionals.
Honest question: was the NDP planning to turn all the lab employees from an outside provider into government healthcare employees? Because that is something I can see the NDP do. The UCP seems to want to continue to use an outside lab contracted to AHS, since that is a better bang for the buck.
Location: Wondering when # became hashtag and not a number sign.
Exp:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ironhorse
Honest question: was the NDP planning to turn all the lab employees from an outside provider into government healthcare employees? Because that is something I can see the NDP do. The UCP seems to want to continue to use an outside lab contracted to AHS, since that is a better bang for the buck.
I don't know but that sounds quite plausible when you look at the vast amount of unionized public sector jobs added since the NDP started governing.
This all goes back to the boogeyman known as "two tier health care" and "privatization will lead to US style health care". It's a tried and true election tactic by the opposition to conservative governments forever. It also complete hooey.
Again though, and quite disturbingly, since there is and has been no election called Im left wondering why the NDP are campaigning against UCP platforms on the taxpayer dollar.
But why worry about the actual governing body and what they are doing when you can make a up a narrative that doesn't exist against the other guys?
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Yes...because that phrase was never spoken as suspected.
What part of this are you unable to grasp?
And what is with the very odd capitalization of random letters?
If you want to say something, say it.
It’s a special code.
The part I don’t understand is how you could think that saying labs don’t heal people is a far cry from “labs don’t save lives” considering the fact that healing people is how you save lives (in addition to the wait times). And why you would characterise Ozy’s post as fear mongering etc without clarification from him (the person you actually asked to clarify).
This is what happens when you have a narrative you need to stick to. Instead of waiting for an answer, you just went and called it fake news because someone else said something that reinforced the opinion you wanted to have.
Instead of defaulting to plugging your ears and saying fake news, when you ask for clarification from someone: wait for it. And feel free to add a little bit of nuance to a discussion instead of resorting to claims of BS/fear mongering when someone makes a pretty fair interpretation of a sentiment, even if you don’t agree.
Or just keep doing what you’re doing and telling NDP door knockers to #### off. Because that’s a great way to live.
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The real question here not being discussed is Is there a problem with lab delivery under the current model?
Are their barriers to entry and risk that make the private sector unable to offer these services.
Has the profit motive created perverse incentives that lead to reduced quality?
The ideology of UCP privitize NDP Nationalize should not enter the decision process. In general I’m on team Kenny here that this seems like a service that should be privately run.
It has discrete scopes, high volumes, and objective results. This lends itself to competition driving down costs and find efficiency and the customer (government) being able to easily evaluate performance and cost.
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In announcing his intentions, Kenney said it was necessary because the NDP’s approach was too ideological.
He’s right. Yet he is being disingenuous to suggest his own approach doesn’t bear the same characterization.
Even worse, his plan simply isn’t well conceived.
While the UCP leader is clear that he wants to scrap the lab facility and allow Dynalife to continue operating, he doesn’t seem to know what will come next — other than a promise to consult with experts.
Call me crazy, but wouldn’t it be better to consult with experts first, then decide whether to cancel the NDP’s plans?
Should he have those conversations, he might learn that some sort of new lab centre will be needed in the near future. As much as Kenney might try to sell the idea that the private sector will take on that project, it’s ludicrous to think the costs won’t be passed onto taxpayers.
Checked the last ~5 pages or so but not 100% sure whether this has come up yet or not—have we talked about the NDP's online strategy yet? I stumbled across meetjasonkenney.ca the other day and it's a pretty stunning takedown of Kenney's political resume.
On the surface, it comes across as really negative, but when you start to dig into it the articles are essentially a listing of facts, with all the sources provided. From a purely strategic standpoint, it actually strikes me as pretty impressive. What do CP'ers think?
Checked the last ~5 pages or so but not 100% sure whether this has come up yet or not—have we talked about the NDP's online strategy yet? I stumbled across meetjasonkenney.ca the other day and it's a pretty stunning takedown of Kenney's political resume.
On the surface, it comes across as really negative, but when you start to dig into it the articles are essentially a listing of facts, with all the sources provided. From a purely strategic standpoint, it actually strikes me as pretty impressive. What do CP'ers think?
What do I think? How about the NDP campaigns on their own merits and accomplishments?
Like I said earlier, I don't care about the ooga booga rundown. I will not vote NDP.
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I don't know if I've heard of complaints about the current way that the Lab services are run privately, the health care issues seem to revolve around cost and delivery.
I don't understand the rational of doing a centralization and adding about 1200 people to the public payroll. Unless the NDP can show how this would make things more efficient, I would greet this super lab etc with some skepticism.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
This dream scenario where Jason Kenney is elected, the economy booms overnight, pipelines everywhere, and no taxes is a Kansas-sized disaster waiting to happen.
For Mr. Kenney to be successful requires a perfect storm where oil price goes way up, companies hire en masse (bucking shareholder responsibility), and courts don't get involved in pipeline decisions. Meanwhile don't kid yourselves; there will be deep, painful cuts to essential services and programs needed so desperately by the same people who would vote for him.
A cautionary tale from said state - Kansas - where the reality of tax cuts wasn't so rosy for a state that put its faith in Free Market/Trickle Down theories:
What Kenney said was that the money the NDP spent on this lab should have been spent on a hospital, because that would address capacity issues and the money would go to treating actual patients. This is not by any stretch of the imagination a crazy or outlandish thing to say. Whether or not you agree with that difference of opinion about how our tax dollars should have been spent in this particular case, it's obviously not some "gotcha" statement that can be laid at the feet of the UCP as a gaffe or anything. Characterizing it like that is dishonest.
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
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In announcing his intentions, Kenney said it was necessary because the NDP’s approach was too ideological.
He’s right. Yet he is being disingenuous to suggest his own approach doesn’t bear the same characterization.
Even worse, his plan simply isn’t well conceived.
While the UCP leader is clear that he wants to scrap the lab facility and allow Dynalife to continue operating, he doesn’t seem to know what will come next — other than a promise to consult with experts.
Call me crazy, but wouldn’t it be better to consult with experts first, then decide whether to cancel the NDP’s plans?
Should he have those conversations, he might learn that some sort of new lab centre will be needed in the near future. As much as Kenney might try to sell the idea that the private sector will take on that project, it’s ludicrous to think the costs won’t be passed onto taxpayers.
We can pay now, or pay later.
Is this guy on the NDP payroll or a public sector union?
Dr. Penny Ballem did a study for our beloved NDP and concluded that we needed to expand and " Continue to evolve and optimize the tiered hub and spoke model.." and that "Calgary Lab Sevices as being a leadership model for lab service delivery".
The NDP response... to gut CLS and build a unionized super-lab in Edmonton.
They basically ignored the entire report and are now lying about what Kenney wants to do.
Kenney characterizing the lab services as not healing people is also dishonest. Labs provide critical services that hospitals, physicians, medical staff and patients rely on.
