WATCH ABOVE: Alberta’s health care system, and how it supports the mentally ill, is once again in the spotlight. This time it involves a man who died while in the care of AHS in 2013. Eric Szeto reports.
EDMONTON — Critics are once again speaking out against Alberta’s health care system. This time it has to do with the provincial care an Edmonton man received before he died in 2013.
When 54-year-old Cameron Bisset’s body was found, he was slumped over a bedside table, partially naked and alone. He struggled with mental illness for decades, but was deemed able to live on his own, under the supervision of Alberta Health Services.
Cameron Bisset was 5’10” and weighed 103 pounds when he died in April 2013.
“If you saw a photograph of my brother then and now, it’s quite shocking,” said Cameron Bisset’s older brother, George Bisset.
“All his ribs showed,” George Bisset explained. “The anger just boiled because this happened in Edmonton in the 21st century. This never should have happened.”
An autopsy report concluded Cameron Bisset died of upper gastrointestinal hemorrhaging due to a pair of ulcers. It also concluded malnutrition and schizophrenia were factors in his death.
George Bisset believes the health care system failed his brother.
“I believe that the fatality inquiry will show that.”
Global News reached out to AHS and the EPS for comment, but requests were denied due to the pending fatality inquiry.
In a letter to George Bisset, AHS said: “After a careful review we have concluded that the mental health care and treatment provided by the Edmonton zone Addiction & Mental Health programs was appropriate both with regard to the level and standard of care.”
But an internal police report obtained by Global News contradicts those claims. Shortly after Cameron Bisset’s death, Edmonton police conducted a Professional Standards Branch investigation. The findings: Cameron Bisset’s care was far from perfect but no one person could be blamed for his death.
While the investigating officer found “for a variety of reasons I do not have any reasonable suspicion that anybody involved in his care meets the thresholds for (criminal) offences … it is not to say that there were no issues with Cameron’s care.”
The report questions where responsibility for Cameron Bisset’s care lies; it states there were dozens of people in several positions involved in his care.
NDP health critic David Eggen believes it’s clearly a systemic issue.
“It’s a very tragic circumstance and unfortunately, we’re seeing more of this where individuals are slipping through the cracks and not getting the care they need.”
While tragic, Eggen says it’s not “entirely surprising” because of the lengths to which the system is stretched.
“There’s been a lot of pressure on the capacity for our system to look after the people that are the most vulnerable in our society,” Eggen told Global News Sunday.
“The worst thing is we see more of these cases than ever before,” he said. “For every one that we actually get illumination on there’s 10 more people out there suffering, or more.”
While it won’t bring his brother back, George Bisset hopes the fatality inquiry will make recommendations to help ensure no other families have to experience what he’s been through.
“I cry often. My anger is gone, now it’s sadness and I don’t believe I’ll be staying in Alberta. I think I’ll be moving along,” he said. “I’ve lost all confidence here in Alberta.”
With files from Eric Szeto, Global News.
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