What’s a government like the one run by the United Conservative Party (UCP) to do with the public still riled up about that motel medicine meltdown; the health care controversy that just won’t quit?
How about launching an investigation in to the misnamed Contentment Social Services, the company that was discovered by the CBC to have placed a discharged stroke patient with high care needs in a $47-a-night motel in Leduc and dropped off fast food for the poor guy?
That may not be quite as good as being able to say the matter’s before the courts, but it’ll make a perfectly acceptable excuse for not saying anything until the investigation’s wrapped up – which could take a while.
And who knows? It might even take long enough for the furor to settle down and everyone to get excited about something else!
An investigation involving a judge might seem like a better bet for keeping a lid on the need to answer questions, except that judges have the bad habit of being impartial and independent. So we won’t be going there, will we?
Still, it’s a measure of just how worried Premier Danielle Smith and her UCP government must be by the potential fallout from the murky case of Contentment Social Services and at least two hotels in Leduc that instead of launching just one investigation, they’re going to have four!
If the government is thinking, “Look busy, the voters are watching,” four separate investigations should do the trick, eh?
Seniors, Community and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon, accompanied by Health Minister Adriana LaGrange, told an unusual news conference in the Legislature Building that:
- His ministry will investigate why government income support funds taken by Contentment Social Services weren’t used to pay the bills for clients’ hotel rooms
- It will also look separately into whether elderly clients were abused or neglected
- Service Alberta will see if there were any consumer protection or residential tenancy issues
- And the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee will be check something out – news reports were not particularly clear about what, however
The newser was unusual because the government only allowed media to attend in person and published no news release on the topic – so there is no written or video record of what they had to say that can be scrutinized at leisure by interested citizens and bloggers with day jobs.
Suffice it to say, it’s obvious from the coverage that several important questions that need to be answered if what really happened is to be understood are not likely to be asked by any of the investigations.
For example:
- How did a company as obviously sketchy as Contentment Social Services get on the list of care providers given to patients with continuing care needs who were about to be discharged from hospital?
- How does any company get on that list?
- When was the list created, who created it, and when was Contentment Social Services added to it?
- Were the companies on it vetted in any way by AHS or anyone else? If not, why not?
- What are the names of the other providers now on the list?
- Who really owns Contentment Social Services? (This is a question not properly answered by the company’s Alberta corporate registration)
- What role did AHS discharge policies play in creating this situation?
- Did Premier Smith’s past suggestion discharged patients would be more comfortable in hotels influence AHS staff?
- Was there pressure from the UCP Cabinet or the Premier’s Office to get patients without a place to live out of hospital anyway?
The number of people affected by Contentment Social Services’ mismanagement also remains unclear – was it the 39 mentioned by Premier Smith last week, or the 27 said to be in the Park Inn hotel, moved there in some cases from the nearby Travelodge motel?
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