Abbott needs to start giving real answers to health questions

VICTORIA - Health Minister George Abbott could land the government in trouble.
Abbott is seen as hard-working and knowledgeable.
But his standard response to questions in the legislature is a mix of partisan bluster and smart-alecky jokes. Actual answers are rare.
It didn't matter much in past cabinet posts, but it could be disastrous in health.
Even as the government hoped attention would be on the budget, the NDP raised legitimate questions about health care, and their effectiveness was boosted by Abbott's responses.
On budget day Question Period is usually irrelevant.
First up, NDP MLA Norm McDonald. The Interior Health Authority promised to keep Moberly Manor, a seniors home in Revelstoke, open until replacement beds were ready, McDonald said. Now they're closing it before there is anywhere in the community for people to go. Will the government keep its promise?.
Abbott's response was tiresome. The Interior Health Authority and the Liberal government has done a great job, he said, and anyway the NDP didn't invest in long-term care when it was in power. Not a word in response to the actual question.
McDonald appeared genuinely angry by the brushoff. He pointed out the obvious to Abbott: "If the people of Revelstoke were happy with Interior Health, (defeated Liberal) Wendy McMahon would be here, not me."
McDonald got a slightly clearer answer on the second attempt, but Abbott fell on the tired charge that the questions were somehow "fear-mongering." They weren't.
NDP MLA Chuck Puchmayr asked about the closing of 150 seniors'' beds in his riding. Abbot didn't answer, and suggested the question somehow insulted health care workers. It didn't.
And then North Coast MLA Gerry Coons asked about a Prince Rupert man who waited three days in a hospital hallway with a broken wrist and fractured jaw. When a chance for treatment became available in Prince George, his family drove him there - 1,800 kms - for treatment.
Abbott tried harder, but chided Coons for not asking for his help privately before raising the issue.
Except Coons had, and read from Abbott's letter in response that said it was the health authority's problem, not the government's.
The next day the first questions were about the terrible treatment of a Rossland couple, both in their '90s, wrenched apart by the Interior Health Authority days before the woman died. They were to celebrate their 70th anniversary in June. "After that long marriage she didn't even get a kiss or a hug goodbye," said NDP MLA Katrine Conroy.
Abbott apologized, and announced an investigation. But he couldn't resist partisan sniping as well, and a barely relevant reference to how bad things were under the NDP.
But the New Democrats weren't done.
Why is it, asked health critic David Cubberly, that the only non-government person going on a European health fact-finding tour with Gordon Campbell and Abbot is Les Vertesi - the premier's brother-in-law and, according to Cubberly, an advocate of two-tier care.
Fair question. The government only announced that Vertesi would be going along on the four-country tour the day before the premier was to leave. Why him, and not the head of one of the health authorities, or the legislature's health committee, or a New Democrat? (Vertesi is paying his own way.)
Abbott noted Vertesi is a respected ER doctor who has spoken widely on health care issues and is B.C.'s representative on the Canada Health Council. Then he blustered about the NDP being afraid of new ideas and wanting the tour to include Cuba. Blah, blah, blah, as the young people say.
Outside the legislature, Abbott could do little better. He hadn't read Vertesi's book, which Cubberly cited. But even without knowing anything, he was convinced the NDP was wrong. And he didn't know who invited Vertesi.
Health matters to people, and they don't expect partisan attacks and jokes to replace real answers. If Abbott doesn't do better, it will be a long session for the Liberals.
Footnote: Vertesi is not quite the two-tier advocate the NDP claimed. He argues competition is needed to produce health efficiencies, and that until that is built into the public system private two-tier care should be allowed. He's an interesting and thoughtful analysts. But he is also a mysterious choice as the tour's sole expert advisor.