{"id":336374,"date":"2025-12-10T08:03:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T08:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/336374\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T08:03:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T08:03:21","slug":"red-deer-and-lethbridge-chartered-surgical-centres-cancelled-province-to-look-for-new-operator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/336374\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Deer and Lethbridge chartered surgical centres cancelled, province to look for new operator"},"content":{"rendered":"

In September 2022, then-premier Jason Kenney announced that the government had launched a request for proposals to create the centres in Alberta\u2019s two largest mid-sized cities in an effort to increase surgical capacity. No formal agreements have been signed.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

According to Kenney, the goal was to facilitate an additional 1,250 surgeries in the South Zone and 1,350 in the Central Zone, including \u201chip and knee replacement, general surgeries like hernia repairs, and others.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: AHS to contract new chartered surgical facility in South Zone<\/a><\/p>\n

The deal proved to be controversial, as a report from former Manitoba judge Raymond Wyant found that Alberta Surgical Group\u2019s (ASG\u2019s) existing surgical centre in the Edmonton area had been overcharging for surgeries, and that there were a series of conflicts of interest in the deals to build the Lethbridge and Red Deer facilities.<\/p>\n

Athana Mentzelopoulos, a former head of AHS, alleges that she was wrongfully terminated because of the contract situation.<\/p>\n

She was brought into the role in late 2023 and delved deeper into the proposed private surgical centres. <\/p>\n

She claims in a wrongful termination suit that she was repeatedly pressured by then Health Minister Adriana LaGrange to approve the deals, despite concerns over costs and confusion over who would own and operate the facilities.<\/p>\n

Mentzelopoulos stated in her claim that the rates being paid to the Alberta Surgical Group were much higher than other facilities under contract with AHS, and that the company was being paid for services that \u201cwe know has not been required.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Health Minister Adriana LaGrange named in $1.7 million lawsuit by former AHS CEO<\/a><\/p>\n

In light of the controversy, Minister Jones says the government is \u201ccommitted to improving the transparency and accountability of health procurement practices.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition to implementing Judge Wyant\u2019s recommendations, RSM, an independent third party, was engaged in October to review and strengthen acute care procurement processes,\u201d says Jones. \u201cWe are also strengthening legal and contractual frameworks to ensure every applicant and contractor is held to the highest ethical standards. Our government is committed to achieving value for money through open, transparent, and competitive procurement processes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acute Care Alberta plans to launch a new competitive procurement process in early 2026 to secure additional surgical capacity.<\/p>\n

Jones tells Pattison Media that the government remains committed to reducing surgical wait times by delivering 50,000 additional surgeries through the Alberta Care Action Plan.<\/p>\n

He says this will build on the Alberta Surgical Initiative\u2019s $265 million investment in new operating rooms and equipment.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Report into Alberta Health Services contracts finds conflicts widely known<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s frustrating that our government continues to show their lack of commitment to transparency and accountability when it comes to surgical procurement,\u201d says Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare, in a media release. \u201cIf the government believes there were issues with the procurement of these contracts what were they? Who is being held accountable?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is why Albertans deserve a fully empowered public inquiry with a wide mandate to look into the entirety of this government\u2019s health care procurement processes and decisions,\u201d he adds. \u201cThis is the only way Albertans can be assured we will get complete answers on the ongoing allegations of corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvidence has repeatedly shown the government\u2019s ongoing ideological push to privatize more surgeries into for-profit surgical centres has been harming the surgical capacity in our public hospitals,\u201d continues Gallaway. \u201cThe cancelling of the contracts for these two surgical facilities is an opportunity for the government to change course, cancel plans for these new private facilities altogether and instead focus on properly staffing our public hospitals and operating rooms where lifesaving and emergency surgeries need to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In September 2022, then-premier Jason Kenney announced that the government had launched a request for proposals to create…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-336374","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}