Ms. Smith earlier on Tuesday wrote a letter to the Calgary Herald extolling the benefits of saving the Health Resource Centre.

Two doctors wrote letters to the editor calling her out on her twisted viewpoint and twisting of the truth. They are posted below with links to their original pages on www.CalgaryHerald.com.

Letter #1

Ask the experts

Re: “Province must intervene to save HRC,” Danielle Smith, Opinion, Aug. 24.

I think Steve Miller and his orthopedic and anesthesia colleagues do a very good job of the hip and knee arthroplasties they perform at the HRC. So I agree with that sentiment in Danielle Smith’s piece. What she did not state, however, is that arthroplasty at the HRC is confined to the healthiest patients. The higher-risk patients are all done at the AHS hospital sites. It is typical for private facilities to provide care only to the healthiest patients who have the fewest complications and the lowest hospital costs. If Smith wishes to use superlatives to describe care in private facilities, she needs to compare similar populations of patients. Perhaps if Steve had limited the size of his new facility, and done a better job of managing his investors, without biting off more than he could chew, then AHS would not have had to intervene legally to protect the patients who were committed to HRC. Smith might start to educate herself on this topic by reading the account by Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of

Medicine (Google: Marcia Angell, Privatizing health care is not the answer: lessons from the United States. Canadian Medical Association Journal, Oct. 21, 2008.) What Angell may have forgotten about this topic is more than Smith will ever know. I encourage Albertans to listen to people who know what they are talking about.

Charles MacAdams, MD, Calgary

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And letter #2:

One Sided

Re: “Province must intervene to save HRC,” Danielle Smith, Opinion, Aug. 24.

I have not made up my mind whether private surgical clinics such as the HRC are good for Albertans or not. However, I find Danielle Smith’s column interesting. To me, it is most telling that Smith seems to throw her support completely behind the HRC while condemning the Alberta government when she states: “The facts of this case are yet to be determined in court, however, HRC’s version of events is as follows . . . . ” So it seems like she has made up her mind after only hearing one side of the story. One must ask if Albertans would want the leader of a political party, much less someone who aspires to be the leader of the province, to lack such basic skills as fact gathering and the patience to hear both sides of the story before making up her mind on an issue.

Ken Cheung, MD, Calgary

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