Dr. Verna Yiu Has Been Removed As Alberta Health Services CEO

One of the least covered aspects of the Alberta government’s overbearing response to the COVID-19 pandemic was the Alberta Health Service’s poor performance when it came to hospitalizations and ICU beds. 

The National Telegraph was one of the only, and at times the only, publication covering AHS’ flawed ICU bed data that made it seem as if Alberta’s healthcare system was constantly on the verge of being overwhelmed.

Using the research of cybersecurity expert David Dickson we showed that ICU bed data was being constantly altered and that the AHS was underutilizing medical resources they were given by the UCP government. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw in January 2022 even admitted that the AHS’ ICU bed numbers were being misreported up to that point. 

Now the CEO of AHS who was in charge of the operation of Alberta’s medical system during the pandemic is out of a job. Dr. Verna Yiu was fired by the UCP government, likely wanting to get rid of her for mismanagement at AHS only after COVID-19 had passed because Premier Jason Kenney and his cabinet feared causing a scandal by removing her sooner.

Mauro Chies the vice president of Cancer Care Alberta and Clinical Support Services will be taking over as the interim CEO of AHS. 

Dr. Yiu in a statement released after she was no longer the AHS CEO stated that:

I have had the extraordinary privilege to lead Alberta Health Services for the past six plus years…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.

This is quite an ironic thing for Dr. Yiu to say on her way out seeing as one of the other scandals associated with her leadership at AHS was the attempt to suspend/fire 26,255 “casual employees” from AHS for being unvaccinated. 

It was only after David Dickson and The National Telegraph published leaked information that they had been cutting staff members to achieve a higher vaccination rate that AHS eased off and then reversed course entirely a couple of months later. 

It is a marvel that Dr. Yiu was not removed sooner as the AHS CEO since she seemed to only serve the interests of the NDP and the Nurses’ Union of Alberta by artificially making COVID-19 seem like more of an issue than it really was, requiring strict lockdowns and tight restrictions.  

Hopefully, following Dr. Vern Yiu’s departure, deeper reforms of AHS and an overhaul of the way the Alberta healthcare system operates will be undertaken. Right now it seems like Alberta is drowning in medical bureaucracy and to get wait times down we need fewer managers and more independent doctors to improve medical delivery to Albertans.