By Chris Brown

Political move to appease extremists, says NDP

Dr. Verna Yiu out as head of Alberta Health Services

Apr 4, 2022 | 11:03 AM

Dr. Verna Yiu is out as president and CEO of Alberta Health Services.

A news release Monday did not give a specific reason for Yiu’s departure and Alberta’s NDP health critic David Shepherd responded what the party called “to the UCP’s dismissal of Dr. Verna Yiu as CEO of Alberta Health Services” at a news conference this morning.

“Today the UCP has pushed public healthcare in Alberta deeper into chaos,” Shepherd says. “The UCP’s firing of Dr. Verna Yiu comes at a critical time for our province and for public health care in general.”

While the NDP have no definitive proof Yiu was fired, Shepherd says the departure is a political move to appease extremists within the party to move them back into Kenney’s camp before the party leadership review on April 9.

The AHS release states a “search committee was formed several months ago, and the group has started a search process. An interim president and CEO will be appointed shortly and the board has asked Mauro Chies, vice president, Cancer Care Alberta and Clinical Support Services, to serve in the role of interim CEO on a temporary basis.

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“We are very grateful for Dr. Yiu’s tireless leadership through the worst days of the pandemic, and we thank her for her years of dedicated service and commitment to AHS and to Albertans,” says board chair Gregory Turnbull in the release. “We have been planning for an orderly transition.”

Yiu has led AHS for more than six years and has one year left on her contract.

“I would like to thank all staff, physicians and volunteers for their steadfast care of Albertans and their ability to put patients and families first, particularly as we have navigated through the past two pandemic years,” she states in the release.

In a statement, Health Minister Jason Copping thanked Yiu for her leadership over the past six years. He said the board had already begun planning the recruitment process for a new CEO at the end of Yiu’s extended term, adding her departure today will bump up the timeline for the transition and help the system move forward.

“It’s time to move forward with an ambitious agenda to improve and modernize the health system, and renewed leadership at Alberta Health Services will support delivering those changes,” he said.

— with files from Gates Guarin