Chris Eagle announced as leader of Acute Care Alberta

EDMONTON – Health Minister Adriana LaGrange has appointed Dr. Chris Eagle (pictured) as chairman, and interim president and CEO of Acute Care Alberta, pending contract finalization, to take the fledgling agency from legal status on Feb. 1 to operational status in April.

This is the third of four “pillars” in premier Danielle Smith’s restructuring of healthcare and follows the launches of Recovery Alberta for mental health and addiction last July and Primary Care Alberta last November. Another agency for continuing care will also be created, forming a fourth pillar.

“Right now, what we’re doing is making sure that we stand up Acute Care Alberta and make it successful because it will oversee all of acute care, which will include Alberta service providers, versus an entity (AHS) that is trying to do everything for everyone,” LaGrange told Postmedia.

For his part, Dr. Eagle has a long history with healthcare in Alberta. As the person in charge of front-line healthcare for all Alberta patients, critics blamed Eagle for turmoil in the system in 2013.

Created in 2008 as the province’s health regions were lumped under a single board to lower costs and hike efficiency, AHS was fraught with organizational shakeups and blowups, reports of turf wars and disputes over lavish pay deals for senior managers, with scandals over queue-jumping and doctor intimidation.

Eagle took over from the then-AHS president Stephen Duckett, who was heavily criticized for reports that emergency room waits had become so bad, patients were suffering for 20 hours or more waiting to be seen, while others dialled 911 for paramedic help while sitting a few feet from the admitting desk.

Just before leaving AHS, Eagle apologized to home-care clients who were denied service due to problems with contracted providers in Edmonton.

However, LaGrange said Eagle is experienced and respected in the healthcare field and is chairman of the board for the Alberta Cancer Foundation. She said he is also “someone who has been at the helm of Alberta Health Services and has seen what works really well and what doesn’t work really well and what needs to change.”

Next after Acute Care Alberta, the UCP government expects to roll out Assisted Living Alberta for continuing care in the spring, LaGrange said.

Meanwhile, NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi was critical of the UCP government.

“Danielle Smith and Adriana LaGrange keep attacking acute care by firing CEOs and appointing more insiders instead of fixing the very real problems Albertans are facing. Emergency rooms across the province are closing and nearly a million Albertans don’t have a family doctor,” he said.

“This is now the fourth CEO and the fourth board chair the UCP has gone through since 2021. Alberta now has six healthcare organizations, each with their own management layer and the UCP still cannot get it right. Their incompetence is putting patients at risk,” Nenshi said.

He cited Smith’s promise to fix healthcare in 90 days.

“That was 810 days ago and all we’ve seen is a system on the verge of collapse, more new managers for them to blame, and worse patient outcomes,” he said.

“Smith and LaGrange keep looking for people to blame for this disaster. It’s time for them to look in the mirror, it’s time to stop firing scapegoats and fire this government.”