Alberta Minister stripped health agency of power to negotiate private surgical contracts, document shows

Health Minister Adriana LaGrange stripped Alberta’s health authority of its power to negotiate contracts for private surgical facilities, according to a government directive, after the agency’s then-chief executive allegedly raised concerns internally about the prices in the contracts.The Globe and Mail last week reported a series of allegations former Alberta Health Services CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos’s lawyer Dan Scott made in a letter to AHS on Jan. 20. The letter alleges government officials, including Premier Danielle Smith’s then-chief of staff, interfered in AHS’s procurement process on behalf of private companies. The lawyer’s letter also alleges Alberta eroded Ms. Mentzelopoulos’s authority to negotiate deals for chartered surgical facilities, which are privately owned outfits that perform operations paid for by the government as part of the public health system.