Senior mental health official to resign
Last Updated: Wednesday, September 9, 2009 | 4:41 PM ET
CBC News
The clinical director for addiction and mental health with Alberta Health Services, Dr. Patrick White, is stepping down on Sept. 25. (CBC)The Alberta Health Services official who was at the centre of the announcement of bed closures at Alberta Hospital is resigning.
Dr. Patrick White, clinical director for addiction and mental health with Alberta Health Services, is resigning as of Sept. 25.
White, who is the president-elect of the Alberta Medical Association, feels that being in both positions would put him in a conflict of interest.
"I think that it would be very difficult for me to serve both organizations to the best of my ability," White said Wednesday. "I want to be absolutely 100 per cent transparent so I can do my job to the best of my ability."
White said there is no link between his resignation and changes at the Alberta Hospital.
"It's understandable with all the recent publicity that one could draw a connection between the two but, no, there is no connection whatsoever."
On Aug. 14, Alberta Health Services announced it was closing some acute-care beds and moving patients to community-based facilities. AHS hasn't publicly said how many patients would be moved, but estimates suggest it could impact as many as 150 of the 400 beds in the hospital.
Officials have also said they are still working on a plan for moving patients, a process that could take up to three years.
White says he is confident the government will hire someone who will advocate for patients as his replacement.
"I don't think you can have an individual in that position who just does what they're told to do," he said. "I think as a physician you always have to advocate on the side of the patient and I think that is something I've always done."
CBC News has learned that some patients could be moving to two facilities in the city: Ottewell Lodge, a recently-closed senior's home in the east end, and the new long-term care facility that is now being constructed near the Misericordia Hospital in the west end.
Covenant Health had planned to operate the 90-bed facility as a seniors home when it opens in May 2010. It may now house geriatric patients with mental illnesses.
With files from Charles Rusnell
