Home-care agencies unhappy with tendering process, report shows

A confidential report into how Alberta Health Services awarded new home-care contracts reveals competing agencies expressed a wide range of complaints over the process.

The AHS report showsagencies complainedabout a lack of transparency, deadlines that were too tight, and made allegations that somecompaniesdirectly approached the premier.

• Read the report

In early June, homecare delivery in Alberta underwentmajor changes, as small non-profit agencies were replaced by larger companies.

Alberta Health Services signed new contracts with 13 homecare providers in Juneshutting out many well-established groups.

After a public outcry, the provincerenewed many of the contracts.

The heavily redacted report concludes the process was fair and transparent, althoughFriends of Medicare points out the report made no mention of how the changes will save $18.5 million.

"Because they're private companiesfor-profit, private companiesthey don't have to share that, although they're getting subsidized by public health dollars," said executive director Sandra Azocar.

Azocar alsosaidthe 94-pagereport does notmentionanything abouttransition plans or staffing levels.

"The trained specialized staffing was not in place for this transition to take place and that's having a serious impact on the quality of care that people are receiving," she said.