The NDP government's Throne Speech commitment to review the province's 11 regional health authorities is a welcome departure from their unapologetic defence of the regionalization model. However, given that to date, no details of the review have been announced, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is happy to offer some suggestions to the Health Minister.

1. Annual audits
Hardly a week goes by without the CTF office receiving phone calls or e-mails about problems in one health region or another. Everything from hiring practices to increased administrative costs is on the minds of taxpayers. Annual audits of all spending lines for the health authorities will ensure taxpayers are getting the best bang for their buck. Annual audits would also deter incidents such as the Burntwood Health Authority where senior executives were over-paid, received interest free loans and boosted their expense payments by bringing their families on trips.

2. Review salaries of all regional health authority administrative staff
At the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, the top 10 bureaucrats are being paid nearly $2 million. Manitoba patients meanwhile wait 10 weeks to receive a CT scan. Clearly there is something wrong with this picture.

3. Charge the health authorities to come up with a long-term plan to contract out services
Provinces all across Canada are contracting out services to the private sector. We acknowledge this is an anathema to the NDP government; however efficiencies can, and have been found as is evidence in BC which has saved over $60 million by contracting out laundry, food services, security, maintenance and the like.

4. Consider public-private partnerships for construction and operation of hospitals
The NDP government should introduce competitive tendering for services within the health system. This would include construction and operation of hospitals. An excellent example comes from Abbotsford, BC. The government is building the province's first hospital in a generation using the highly successful public-private partnership (P3) model. The hospital and its medical services will be public but it will be built, operated and maintained by a private partner on contract with the government. Abbotsford is the first hospital of its kind in Canada.

5. Take off the ideological blinders for the purposes of an honest review
In the area of health care, allowing a choice of private service delivery is not only an option, but a necessity. Annual funding increases, come without a noticeable long term improvement in the length of surgical waiting lists, the availability of advanced medical technology, the accessibility and affordability of pharmaceuticals, the length of the queue for long term care or assisted living spaces, and the number of services/practitioners covered by provincial health plans.

Moreover, what governments fail to do voluntarily, the courts may force them to do. Patients that need care cannot be confined to government wait list without alternatives for their well-being.

The provincial government has an opportunity to be a leader in the on-going health care debate with the review of the health authorities. New and innovative ideas for the delivery of health care are the prescription for what ails the monopolistic system; one can only hope the new Health Minister agrees the status quo is unacceptable.