Is there another Bernard Lord that we don’t know about? Did McGill hire the wrong guy? The TJ is running a story today that McGill recently hired the former premier to oversee its new health care institute for strategic analysis and innovation. The institute’s goal is to build a sustainable health care system. As a scholar-in-residence Lord will develop strategic papers on health care policy. He will also continue as a senior counsel at the McCarthy Tetrault law firm in Montreal.
Huh? Bernard Lord as a scholar on health care policy?
Here’s his track record:
-Under Lord, New Brunswick was only one of two provinces to rule out even looking at private health care options.
-Health care expenditures under Lord rose at a rate similar to Alberta, BC and Ontario – provinces that added hundreds of thousands in new population. In New Brunswick, the population stagnated. But the health care expenditures raised at roughly the same rate as fast growing population provinces.
-Under Lord there was almost no innovation – we are behind on nurse practitioners, teleheatlh, overhead consolidation, etc.
So, out of control health care spending relative to no population growth, virtually no innovation and completely against even looking at private options.
Sounds like an expert to me.