EDMONTON — Albertans shouldn’t notice any reduction in services when they show up at hospitals in the province despite a projected $1 billion deficit facing the superboard that manages public health care across the province, says Health Minister Ron Liepert.
Liepert told reporters at the legislature that government officials will sit down with Alberta Health Services to work out a debt-reduction plan which could include borrowing money to cover the shortfall.
The health minister also maintained he still has confidence in the board he created to replace Alberta’s regional health authorities a year ago.
“I think we need to give the board and the new CEO and his management team a year or two to start to work through some of these issues,” Liepert said, noting that Alberta Health Services CEO Stephen Duckett, an economist who was recruited from Australia, only assumed the job three months ago.
“You don’t make these changes overnight, but I am confident that given a year or two you’re going to see a more efficient health-care delivery system in this province,” he said.
Liepert also stressed that the rising cost of health care is an issue in other provinces of Canada and jurisdictions around the world.
He said that while he expects that a single provincial board will eventually be more efficient than the nine regional health authorities, it won’t happen overnight.
“No one ever said there was going to be cost-savings right out of the gate,” he said. “This is not an overnight solution that we had embarked upon. This is a long-term attempt to get a hold of health-care costs in this province and ensure that while we’re getting a hold of health-care costs that we’re working toward improved patient care and accessibility.”
Duckett refused to talk about possible program cuts to hospitals and health programs, instead insisting that he will work to find spending efficiencies to help cover the projected deficit.
“We’ve got to look at everything,” said Duckett told a press conference at Calgary’s children’s hospital. “My first priority is to look for efficiencies.”
Cuts to programs are “the last resort,” Duckett said. Instead, the health superboard says it will save $250 million this year by combining payroll departments and other administrative departments from the nine former health regions, plus the Alberta Cancer Board and AADAC, into one. It will also focus on getting seniors out of expensive hospital beds into long-term care facilities.
That annual savings is expected to grow to $650 million next year and each year going forward.
If necessary, the health region will also consider borrowing money to make up the shortfall, but not until Duckett brings a formal debt reduction plan to the board. As part of that plan, Duckett will also have to report why Alberta spends more than the national average on health care, but doesn’t have better health outcomes such as longer life expectancy.
The projected $1.1 million deficit is on top of another $343 million deficit carried forward from the last fiscal year.
Friends of Medicare executive director David Eggen said the announcement of a projected deficit was “a body blow to public health.”
He said that if the government embarked on cuts to balance the books it would have to chop one out of every 10 health-care professionals and he urged Premier Ed Stelmach to find other options.
“We’re very concerned and we hope Mr. Stelmach won’t just cut and run on this — that we actually get some long-term planning to make sure health care is there when everybody needs it,” he said. “Albertans tell us time and time again they want a public health-care system strengthened. They don’t want private health care as a default and they sure the heck don’t want $1 billion taken out of the health-care system.”
NDP MLA Rachel Notley said she is worried the governing Conservatives will use the deficit as an excuse to contract out more health-care delivery to the private sector.
“The government is basically making a decision to try to create a crisis in order to create an appetite for cuts and ultimately bring in more privatization,” she said. “If Premier Stelmach had this agenda 18 months ago when he was running for office he had an obligation to tell Albertans about it — and he didn’t.”
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Lethbridge Friends of Medicare Rally - 250 people!
Text of speech from Virgil Grandfield at rally for St. Michael's and Medicare, 25 June 2009.
First, I would like to thank the Friends of Medicare and all other organizations and individuals who have answered our call today for help in defending senior care as health care in this province. We are grateful for the work you do to support and defend Universal Health Care every day in this city and province and country.I would also like to thank the many citizens of Lethbridge who have called my home these past weeks, especially those seniors – our super citizens - who call me every day to share their views, and often their pain, on these issues. It was one of our super citizens, Miss Madeleine Brown, a retired schoolteacher and long-time resident of Lethbridge, who - at lunch breaks on days I worked as her gardener just a few blocks from here – taught me to cherish the privilege and responsibility of local citizenship. Miss Brown studied and debated every issue as seriously and passionately as if her vote was always going to be the one deciding the election and fate of her world. It was this attitude of hers, more than any number of votes, that changed her world, I believe. Miss Brown died three years ago, but I believe her attitude and spirit of citizenship lives on in this group assembled with us today. I got a call from Miss Brown's ghost this week - a Mrs. June Lee, another super-citizen - phoned to say that her ire was really up over the deregulation of senior care and that she was bringing some of her super citizen friends to our rally today. Mrs. Lee, I want you to know your phone call was the first moment I really felt we are going to win this fight.Most nights, I read the bible to my father, a retired minister with Alzheimer's who is now in hospital awaiting placement in a dementia facility. The other night, in the third verse of Hebrews Chapter 3 we came across a bit of ancient wisdom which I think our government and maybe our society has forgotten: “He who hath built the house hath more honour than the house.” Our seniors, our retired schoolteachers, our farmers and builders and ministers, our super citizens, built this country. They suffered the winters, cleared the land, plowed the fields, hoed the beets. They paid the taxes that built this building behind me, and some even actually put brick on brick for it. They raised the children who work in it now as adults, they packed their lunches, made them do their homework, and sent them to universities and colleges, which they also built. They built the roads you drove on to get here today, they planted these lawns on which you stand, these trees under which you rest. On top of everything, they built and gave to us, our Universal Health Care System, which is the envy of the world. Now, in the last decade, but especially in the last weeks and months, this government of this the luckiest of all generations is telling us we can't afford to keep our seniors in the public system which they, our super citizens, built. This luckiest of generations is cashing in its inheritance and selling its own best generation out to privateers. They pretend to take in and give refuge to the generation that actually built the house, and then allow strangers to sublet that same house to them at a profit. Why do they, the oil-soaked politicians and profiteers and rentiers of this - our luckiest, wealthiest generation - why do they say we the public can no longer afford to care completely for our builders? Why are they quietly redesigning health care criteria like bean counters in order to quickly move 80 per cent of seniors from holistic, public long term nursing care into a doublespeak system that reclassifies senior care as for profit residence and services with some public health delivery? Why do they talk as if eggs exist separate from their shells. As if we drink our milk from the floor. As if families won't eventually realize that they are paying more for less. As if seniors won't recognize this counterfeit and know that they are being sold out? As if they won't wonder at this dishonour? As if they won't say, “Why us?”There is an F. Scott Fitzgerald story about a fellow named Benjamin Button who is born into this life as an old man. As Benjamin ages, he grows younger and younger until as he approaches his death, he becomes a toddler who has no vocabulary or memory but of the present. In the story, Benjamin's nurse cares for him constantly and tenderly, moment-to-moment, until, as an infant, he closes his eyes forever. My father has Alzheimer's dementia. In a sense, because his brain is dying, he is also aging in reverse. He is dying as a sweet boy, and eventually, an utterly helpless, speechless infant. Why would we afford him any less care than Benjamin's Button? Why would we treat any senior, any of our builders – even those who age and die more normally - as less of a treasure to us than a child I must tell you a story now to give you a more intimate window into this debate between public long term health care for seniors and this government's quiet, dishonest deregulation scheme for seniors. Last week, a super citizen came to the door of my home and introduced herself as a volunteer at St. Michael's and as someone who is upset with the government of Alberta. She said her life partner, a Mr. Doug Richardson, suffering from a host of medical problems, was classified for placement to a deregulated assisted living facility here in the city a few years ago. On a Sunday last Spring, this woman said she notified care attendants at the facility that her life partner was breathing heavily and might need to go to hospital. She told me the staff of this assisted living facility said they were not qualified to assess Mr. Richardson. The woman continued to raise her concerns, until on the Thursday, a blood test was done, and an ambulance called. The next morning, Doug Richardson died of an undiagnosed bladder infection because he was not in a proper long term care facility supervised by a Registered Nurse. Unlucky Mr. Richardson was deregulated to death by the luckiest generation in history, in the richest place on earth. Mr. Richardson's widow now believes so strongly in publicly administered and regulated senior care, she works for free in this beautiful building behind me, turning her anger to action and spending the balance of her years not in seeking what is owed her but in giving what is needed. She has standards many of us can't totally relate to anymore. Not politicians, nor bean counters, nor bonus seekers, not profiteers, not salary negotiators, nor soft-handed speechmakers. Only a builder could understand her pride and sense of ownership and responsibility in what she has built and what she daily gives the reflected glory of her honour. This Universal Health Care system, including especially senior care, belongs to those who need it and those who built it. No one has a right to take it away from them, by deregulation, by selfishness, by third way, quiet way, my way or the highway. Doug Richardson was every woman's life partner and his widow is everyone's widow. My father is everyone's father. Miss Brown was everyone's great aunt. Mrs. Lee is everyone's mother and ring leader. We will not become a society which dishonours any of them or lets any of one of our builders die before their appointed time. We will not allow fast talkers, whitewashers and quick counters play this way with the truth and our builders' lives and the treasure they have left us. We sons and daughters and families, we Friends of Medicare and associated parties and organizations, we the people of Lethbridge and Alberta, and not least of all, Mrs. Lee and her band of super citizens – we all here are drawing a line and taking a stand for seniors and medicare at St. Michael's, and sending out the call to our fellow citizens to defend and honour our builders. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, from one of my father's favourite passages of scripture: “Cry aloud and spare not... Lift up thy voice like a trumpet!”
First, I would like to thank the Friends of Medicare and all other organizations and individuals who have answered our call today for help in defending senior care as health care in this province. We are grateful for the work you do to support and defend Universal Health Care every day in this city and province and country.I would also like to thank the many citizens of Lethbridge who have called my home these past weeks, especially those seniors – our super citizens - who call me every day to share their views, and often their pain, on these issues. It was one of our super citizens, Miss Madeleine Brown, a retired schoolteacher and long-time resident of Lethbridge, who - at lunch breaks on days I worked as her gardener just a few blocks from here – taught me to cherish the privilege and responsibility of local citizenship. Miss Brown studied and debated every issue as seriously and passionately as if her vote was always going to be the one deciding the election and fate of her world. It was this attitude of hers, more than any number of votes, that changed her world, I believe. Miss Brown died three years ago, but I believe her attitude and spirit of citizenship lives on in this group assembled with us today. I got a call from Miss Brown's ghost this week - a Mrs. June Lee, another super-citizen - phoned to say that her ire was really up over the deregulation of senior care and that she was bringing some of her super citizen friends to our rally today. Mrs. Lee, I want you to know your phone call was the first moment I really felt we are going to win this fight.Most nights, I read the bible to my father, a retired minister with Alzheimer's who is now in hospital awaiting placement in a dementia facility. The other night, in the third verse of Hebrews Chapter 3 we came across a bit of ancient wisdom which I think our government and maybe our society has forgotten: “He who hath built the house hath more honour than the house.” Our seniors, our retired schoolteachers, our farmers and builders and ministers, our super citizens, built this country. They suffered the winters, cleared the land, plowed the fields, hoed the beets. They paid the taxes that built this building behind me, and some even actually put brick on brick for it. They raised the children who work in it now as adults, they packed their lunches, made them do their homework, and sent them to universities and colleges, which they also built. They built the roads you drove on to get here today, they planted these lawns on which you stand, these trees under which you rest. On top of everything, they built and gave to us, our Universal Health Care System, which is the envy of the world. Now, in the last decade, but especially in the last weeks and months, this government of this the luckiest of all generations is telling us we can't afford to keep our seniors in the public system which they, our super citizens, built. This luckiest of generations is cashing in its inheritance and selling its own best generation out to privateers. They pretend to take in and give refuge to the generation that actually built the house, and then allow strangers to sublet that same house to them at a profit. Why do they, the oil-soaked politicians and profiteers and rentiers of this - our luckiest, wealthiest generation - why do they say we the public can no longer afford to care completely for our builders? Why are they quietly redesigning health care criteria like bean counters in order to quickly move 80 per cent of seniors from holistic, public long term nursing care into a doublespeak system that reclassifies senior care as for profit residence and services with some public health delivery? Why do they talk as if eggs exist separate from their shells. As if we drink our milk from the floor. As if families won't eventually realize that they are paying more for less. As if seniors won't recognize this counterfeit and know that they are being sold out? As if they won't wonder at this dishonour? As if they won't say, “Why us?”There is an F. Scott Fitzgerald story about a fellow named Benjamin Button who is born into this life as an old man. As Benjamin ages, he grows younger and younger until as he approaches his death, he becomes a toddler who has no vocabulary or memory but of the present. In the story, Benjamin's nurse cares for him constantly and tenderly, moment-to-moment, until, as an infant, he closes his eyes forever. My father has Alzheimer's dementia. In a sense, because his brain is dying, he is also aging in reverse. He is dying as a sweet boy, and eventually, an utterly helpless, speechless infant. Why would we afford him any less care than Benjamin's Button? Why would we treat any senior, any of our builders – even those who age and die more normally - as less of a treasure to us than a child I must tell you a story now to give you a more intimate window into this debate between public long term health care for seniors and this government's quiet, dishonest deregulation scheme for seniors. Last week, a super citizen came to the door of my home and introduced herself as a volunteer at St. Michael's and as someone who is upset with the government of Alberta. She said her life partner, a Mr. Doug Richardson, suffering from a host of medical problems, was classified for placement to a deregulated assisted living facility here in the city a few years ago. On a Sunday last Spring, this woman said she notified care attendants at the facility that her life partner was breathing heavily and might need to go to hospital. She told me the staff of this assisted living facility said they were not qualified to assess Mr. Richardson. The woman continued to raise her concerns, until on the Thursday, a blood test was done, and an ambulance called. The next morning, Doug Richardson died of an undiagnosed bladder infection because he was not in a proper long term care facility supervised by a Registered Nurse. Unlucky Mr. Richardson was deregulated to death by the luckiest generation in history, in the richest place on earth. Mr. Richardson's widow now believes so strongly in publicly administered and regulated senior care, she works for free in this beautiful building behind me, turning her anger to action and spending the balance of her years not in seeking what is owed her but in giving what is needed. She has standards many of us can't totally relate to anymore. Not politicians, nor bean counters, nor bonus seekers, not profiteers, not salary negotiators, nor soft-handed speechmakers. Only a builder could understand her pride and sense of ownership and responsibility in what she has built and what she daily gives the reflected glory of her honour. This Universal Health Care system, including especially senior care, belongs to those who need it and those who built it. No one has a right to take it away from them, by deregulation, by selfishness, by third way, quiet way, my way or the highway. Doug Richardson was every woman's life partner and his widow is everyone's widow. My father is everyone's father. Miss Brown was everyone's great aunt. Mrs. Lee is everyone's mother and ring leader. We will not become a society which dishonours any of them or lets any of one of our builders die before their appointed time. We will not allow fast talkers, whitewashers and quick counters play this way with the truth and our builders' lives and the treasure they have left us. We sons and daughters and families, we Friends of Medicare and associated parties and organizations, we the people of Lethbridge and Alberta, and not least of all, Mrs. Lee and her band of super citizens – we all here are drawing a line and taking a stand for seniors and medicare at St. Michael's, and sending out the call to our fellow citizens to defend and honour our builders. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, from one of my father's favourite passages of scripture: “Cry aloud and spare not... Lift up thy voice like a trumpet!”
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Alberta government going the wrong way on health care
Conservatives' real plan is to break system, pave way for private care
By David Eggen, Edmonton JournalJune 20, 2009 11:02 AM
showTab("text/html");
function resizeImage() {
var imgBox = document.getElementById('imageBox');
var photo = document.getElementById('storyphoto');
if (imgBox != null && photo != null)
{
if(photo.width >= 460)
{
imgBox.className = 'imagesize460';
}
else
{
if(photo.width >= 300)
{
imgBox.className = 'imagesize310';
}
else
{
imgBox.className = 'imageboxpadding';
}
imgBox.style.width = photo.width + 'px';
}
}
}
function getStoryFontSize() {
var storyfontsize = getCookie('storyfontsize');
var storyfontimage = getCookie('storyfontimage');
// use cookied value, if present
if (storyfontsize != null)
{
setClass('story_content',storyfontsize);
if (storyfontimage != null)
{
setClass('fontsizecontainer',storyfontimage);
}
}
else // default it to para14 if no cookie
{
setClass('story_content','para14');
setClass('fontsizecontainer','size02');
}
}
function setStoryFontSize(storyfontsize,storyfontimage) {
setClass('story_content',storyfontsize);
setClass('fontsizecontainer',storyfontimage);
setCookie('storyfontsize', storyfontsize, '365', '/', '', '');
setCookie('storyfontimage', storyfontimage, '365', '/', '', '');
}
function setCookie( name, value, expires, path, domain, secure ) {
// set time
var today = new Date();
today.setTime( today.getTime() );
if ( expires )
{
expires = expires * 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24; //days
}
var expires_date = new Date( today.getTime() + (expires) );
document.cookie = name + "=" + escape( value ) +
( ( expires ) ? ";expires=" + expires_date.toGMTString() : "" ) +
( ( path ) ? ";path=" + path : "" ) +
( ( domain ) ? ";domain=" + domain : "" ) +
( ( secure ) ? ";secure" : "" );
}
function getCookie( check_name ) {
// split this cookie up into name/value pairs
var a_all_cookies = document.cookie.split( ';' );
var a_temp_cookie = '';
var cookie_name = '';
var cookie_value = '';
var b_cookie_found = false; // set boolean t/f default f
for ( i = 0; i 1 )
{
cookie_value = unescape( a_temp_cookie[1].replace(/^\s+\s+$/g, '') );
}
// note that in cases where cookie is initialized but no value, null is returned
return cookie_value;
break;
}
a_temp_cookie = null;
cookie_name = '';
}
if ( !b_cookie_found )
{
return null;
}
}
At one point in John Hughes' classic 1986 movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles, John Candy and Steve Martin carelessly turn off an exit ramp and end up travelling the wrong way on a four-lane highway.
When concerned citizens in another car try to tell them they are going the wrong way, John Candy is dismissive and arrogant, exclaiming to Steve Martin, "How would he know where we are going?" and so the two buffoons continue at full speed down the wrong way. Suddenly, two semi-trailer trucks racing side by side appear on the horizon and a head-on collision is imminent. But in the fine tradition of slapstick comedy, their car somehow scrapes between the two trucks and the hapless comedians continue with their misadventures.
Real life is not so forgiving, and there's nothing remotely funny about more health cuts in store for Alberta. Health Minister Ron Liepert and Alberta Health Services CEO Stephen Duckett--with Premier Stelmach calling directions from somewhere in the back seat--have sent us all hurtling down the wrong way with more cuts, and putting both our health and our pocketbooks in jeopardy.
Liepert, in his usual fashion, refuses to tell Albertans "where we are going" with his health-care plans. But what we have seen so far tells a pretty clear story.
A hiring freeze has been implemented, so hundreds of health-care jobs sit vacant. At the same time, overtime has been limited, which is leading to increased stress and exhausted staff. As a result, surgeries are being delayed and even cancelled, and Albertans are not getting the level of care they were before.
And not just so-called elective surgeries like joint replacement are being delayed. Surgeons are reporting the delay of cancer surgeries for multiple weeks due to the crisis. Plus, the vaunted Mazankowski Health Centre, our supposed jewel, sits empty awaiting health-care professionals to bring it to life.
Furthermore, Liepert is examining delisting medically necessary services, has ended universality for seniors' pharmaceuticals and downloaded costs for care in nursing homes onto seniors and their families.
You get a pretty clear picture of the government's trajectory. Stelmach, Liepert and Duckett are sending our health-care vehicle hurtling the wrong way at highway speeds.
Liepert and Duckett say they must make the cuts to save money, but most of these cuts only postpone an inevitable expense, or download the cost onto the individual.
Either way, these cuts will cost us all more in the end and the quality of our health care will suffer.
The government's warnings of "unsustainable health care" have returned, right on cue, to match the latest rounds of cuts.
As it happens, health expenditures in relation to gross domestic product in Alberta have stayed at between five and seven per cent for the last 15 years. We continue to compare favourably to other jurisdictions. The Canadian average is about 10 per cent, France and Switzerland are at about 11 per cent and the United States is at 15 per cent. To me, this sounds pretty sustainable.
This helps to reveal the real agenda behind Liepert's and Duckett's draconian actions. It is not about "saving medicare" or responding to the recession. People don't stop getting sick when the economy is weak.
The Alberta government's real plan is to destabilize our health-care system so it can implement private, for-profit experiments to "fix" medicare. They are purposefully breaking the health-care system so they can hire private contractors to repair it at inflated prices.
The research about private versus public health care is universally conclusive: private, for-profit health care costs more. A library full of studies have been done looking at the comparative costs -the Conference Board of Canada, Canadian Institute for Health Information, Wellesley Institute, Consumers' Association of Canada and the Parkland Institute have all done substantive research on the topic.
Their conclusions are the same: Canadians and Albertans would be wise to stick with a publicly financed, publicly administered, single-payer health-care system.
It is true that delivering quality public health care doesn't come without costs. And medicare is by no means perfect. Too many services are excluded, wait lists can be too long and still too many people fall between the cracks. But it can be improved affordably. Where there is a wrong way, there most certainly is a better way available, too.
What the Alberta government needs to do is give up on its misguided attempts to insert the profit motive into medicare, and commit once and for all to a publicly funded and delivered health-care system --which is what Albertans want.
We need to start putting our energies into improving health care, which we can do so without stretching the budget.
We need to look at new models for delivering primary care, such as nurse practitioners and teams of health professionals.
We need to expand the medicare umbrella so that it offers a more complete range of care--including pharmacare--to Albertans.
And we need to adopt more measures aimed at keeping people healthy in the first place, because as Tommy Douglas once said, "in the long run it's cheaper to keep people well than to be patching them up after they are sick."
Our main problem in Alberta is not the cost of our health-care vehicle, but the direction the government is driving the car. Albertans need to become more vocal; we need to shout as loudly as we can that the government is driving us the wrong way and demand that it turn the car around.
Call your MLA and tell them so. Join our campaign at friendsof medicare.ca.We need to get the message to government before the semis come bearing down on us.
David Eggen Is Executive Director Of Friends Of Medicare
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal
Conservatives' real plan is to break system, pave way for private care
By David Eggen, Edmonton JournalJune 20, 2009 11:02 AM
showTab("text/html");
function resizeImage() {
var imgBox = document.getElementById('imageBox');
var photo = document.getElementById('storyphoto');
if (imgBox != null && photo != null)
{
if(photo.width >= 460)
{
imgBox.className = 'imagesize460';
}
else
{
if(photo.width >= 300)
{
imgBox.className = 'imagesize310';
}
else
{
imgBox.className = 'imageboxpadding';
}
imgBox.style.width = photo.width + 'px';
}
}
}
function getStoryFontSize() {
var storyfontsize = getCookie('storyfontsize');
var storyfontimage = getCookie('storyfontimage');
// use cookied value, if present
if (storyfontsize != null)
{
setClass('story_content',storyfontsize);
if (storyfontimage != null)
{
setClass('fontsizecontainer',storyfontimage);
}
}
else // default it to para14 if no cookie
{
setClass('story_content','para14');
setClass('fontsizecontainer','size02');
}
}
function setStoryFontSize(storyfontsize,storyfontimage) {
setClass('story_content',storyfontsize);
setClass('fontsizecontainer',storyfontimage);
setCookie('storyfontsize', storyfontsize, '365', '/', '', '');
setCookie('storyfontimage', storyfontimage, '365', '/', '', '');
}
function setCookie( name, value, expires, path, domain, secure ) {
// set time
var today = new Date();
today.setTime( today.getTime() );
if ( expires )
{
expires = expires * 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24; //days
}
var expires_date = new Date( today.getTime() + (expires) );
document.cookie = name + "=" + escape( value ) +
( ( expires ) ? ";expires=" + expires_date.toGMTString() : "" ) +
( ( path ) ? ";path=" + path : "" ) +
( ( domain ) ? ";domain=" + domain : "" ) +
( ( secure ) ? ";secure" : "" );
}
function getCookie( check_name ) {
// split this cookie up into name/value pairs
var a_all_cookies = document.cookie.split( ';' );
var a_temp_cookie = '';
var cookie_name = '';
var cookie_value = '';
var b_cookie_found = false; // set boolean t/f default f
for ( i = 0; i 1 )
{
cookie_value = unescape( a_temp_cookie[1].replace(/^\s+\s+$/g, '') );
}
// note that in cases where cookie is initialized but no value, null is returned
return cookie_value;
break;
}
a_temp_cookie = null;
cookie_name = '';
}
if ( !b_cookie_found )
{
return null;
}
}
At one point in John Hughes' classic 1986 movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles, John Candy and Steve Martin carelessly turn off an exit ramp and end up travelling the wrong way on a four-lane highway.
When concerned citizens in another car try to tell them they are going the wrong way, John Candy is dismissive and arrogant, exclaiming to Steve Martin, "How would he know where we are going?" and so the two buffoons continue at full speed down the wrong way. Suddenly, two semi-trailer trucks racing side by side appear on the horizon and a head-on collision is imminent. But in the fine tradition of slapstick comedy, their car somehow scrapes between the two trucks and the hapless comedians continue with their misadventures.
Real life is not so forgiving, and there's nothing remotely funny about more health cuts in store for Alberta. Health Minister Ron Liepert and Alberta Health Services CEO Stephen Duckett--with Premier Stelmach calling directions from somewhere in the back seat--have sent us all hurtling down the wrong way with more cuts, and putting both our health and our pocketbooks in jeopardy.
Liepert, in his usual fashion, refuses to tell Albertans "where we are going" with his health-care plans. But what we have seen so far tells a pretty clear story.
A hiring freeze has been implemented, so hundreds of health-care jobs sit vacant. At the same time, overtime has been limited, which is leading to increased stress and exhausted staff. As a result, surgeries are being delayed and even cancelled, and Albertans are not getting the level of care they were before.
And not just so-called elective surgeries like joint replacement are being delayed. Surgeons are reporting the delay of cancer surgeries for multiple weeks due to the crisis. Plus, the vaunted Mazankowski Health Centre, our supposed jewel, sits empty awaiting health-care professionals to bring it to life.
Furthermore, Liepert is examining delisting medically necessary services, has ended universality for seniors' pharmaceuticals and downloaded costs for care in nursing homes onto seniors and their families.
You get a pretty clear picture of the government's trajectory. Stelmach, Liepert and Duckett are sending our health-care vehicle hurtling the wrong way at highway speeds.
Liepert and Duckett say they must make the cuts to save money, but most of these cuts only postpone an inevitable expense, or download the cost onto the individual.
Either way, these cuts will cost us all more in the end and the quality of our health care will suffer.
The government's warnings of "unsustainable health care" have returned, right on cue, to match the latest rounds of cuts.
As it happens, health expenditures in relation to gross domestic product in Alberta have stayed at between five and seven per cent for the last 15 years. We continue to compare favourably to other jurisdictions. The Canadian average is about 10 per cent, France and Switzerland are at about 11 per cent and the United States is at 15 per cent. To me, this sounds pretty sustainable.
This helps to reveal the real agenda behind Liepert's and Duckett's draconian actions. It is not about "saving medicare" or responding to the recession. People don't stop getting sick when the economy is weak.
The Alberta government's real plan is to destabilize our health-care system so it can implement private, for-profit experiments to "fix" medicare. They are purposefully breaking the health-care system so they can hire private contractors to repair it at inflated prices.
The research about private versus public health care is universally conclusive: private, for-profit health care costs more. A library full of studies have been done looking at the comparative costs -the Conference Board of Canada, Canadian Institute for Health Information, Wellesley Institute, Consumers' Association of Canada and the Parkland Institute have all done substantive research on the topic.
Their conclusions are the same: Canadians and Albertans would be wise to stick with a publicly financed, publicly administered, single-payer health-care system.
It is true that delivering quality public health care doesn't come without costs. And medicare is by no means perfect. Too many services are excluded, wait lists can be too long and still too many people fall between the cracks. But it can be improved affordably. Where there is a wrong way, there most certainly is a better way available, too.
What the Alberta government needs to do is give up on its misguided attempts to insert the profit motive into medicare, and commit once and for all to a publicly funded and delivered health-care system --which is what Albertans want.
We need to start putting our energies into improving health care, which we can do so without stretching the budget.
We need to look at new models for delivering primary care, such as nurse practitioners and teams of health professionals.
We need to expand the medicare umbrella so that it offers a more complete range of care--including pharmacare--to Albertans.
And we need to adopt more measures aimed at keeping people healthy in the first place, because as Tommy Douglas once said, "in the long run it's cheaper to keep people well than to be patching them up after they are sick."
Our main problem in Alberta is not the cost of our health-care vehicle, but the direction the government is driving the car. Albertans need to become more vocal; we need to shout as loudly as we can that the government is driving us the wrong way and demand that it turn the car around.
Call your MLA and tell them so. Join our campaign at friendsof medicare.ca.We need to get the message to government before the semis come bearing down on us.
David Eggen Is Executive Director Of Friends Of Medicare
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
And now a Calgary heart ward is on the rocks too
NE Calgary special heart ward in jeopardy
Cash shortage means unit may not open
By Michelle Lang, Calgary HeraldJune 17, 2009 6:47 AM
Cardiologists are calling on Alberta's medical superboard to open a promised intensive care area for heart patients at a newly constructed wing of Peter Lougheed Hospital, saying a cash crunch has left the future of the unit uncertain.
Photograph by: Lorraine Hjalte, Calgary Herald
CALGARY - Cardiologists are calling on Alberta's medical superboard to open a promised intensive care area for heart patients at a newly constructed wing of Peter Lougheed Hospital, saying a cash crunch has left the future of the unit uncertain.
Alberta Health Services had planned to open a separate coronary care unit, offering close monitoring for patients with conditions like severe heart failure, when the northeast hospital moves its cardiology services to the new east wing later this year.
But the opening of the six-bed unit is in question because of Alberta Health Services' tight budget. Doctors are now in talks with administrators about the issue.
"This is an important service," said Dr. Hamid Banijamali, site leader for cardiology at Peter Lougheed, who hopes a deal can be reached with the superboard to open the area.
"There is a proper way of doing things, and that is to have a unit that is independent."
Alberta Health Services officials said they are working with concerned physicians in an effort to open the area in the new wing.
"We are working through the budgetary issues and we are optimistic," said Sue Gudmundson, the superboard's vice-president for Peter Lougheed Centre. "It's a priority."
Uncertainty surrounding the unit is one of several challenges facing the $222-million expansion at Peter Lougheed, which was built to add beds to Calgary's space-strapped health system.
The superboard, grappling with an estimated$500-million deficit, said this spring it may close some existing units at Peter Lougheed to find enough money to open the new 140-bed wing at the facility. A leaked superboard memo, released earlier this month, suggested the organization would need an additional $48 million to $50 million to open the new wing without closing old beds.
"The east wing was built with no commitment for operational funding," said the memo.
Opposition parties and lobby groups like the Friends of Medicare blamed the situation facing the coronary care unit on government's failure to adequately plan -- or fund --the opening of the hospital expansion.
"The focus is entirely on saving money," said Liberal Leader David Swann. "It's an example of poor planning and incompetence in the leadership of the health system."
Health Minister Ron Liepert was not available for comment late Tuesday.
Local cardiologists say issues with Peter Lougheed's coronary care unit began more than a year ago when the hospital's regular intensive care unit was facing a serious shortage of beds.
Cardiologists at the facility agreed they would temporarily give up the six-bed coronary care area to intensive care to help ease the space crunch.
The physicians made the concession on the understanding they would soon be moving into the new wing where an independent coronary care unit was being constructed.
In the meantime, doctors created a "pseudo" critical care area in the cardiology ward, using regular rooms for patients with severe heart attacks and other conditions.
Physicians say the situation is challenging because the rooms aren't designed for intensive care and it's difficult to fit the necessary equipment in the spaces.
"It's a stop-gap measure," said Dr. Deb Isaac, Calgary's director of cardiac transplant.
"But we knew it was for a good cause and we would have what we need in the new wing."
Isaac said it's disappointing the promised new unit is now facing funding challenges.
She said lumping the two areas together isn't providing the optimal level of care for patients.
Dr. Todd Anderson, Calgary division chief of cardiology for Alberta Health Services, agreed an independent coronary care unit is the standard of care and noted separate coronary care units exist at Foothills and Rockyview hospitals.
Anderson said he's confident talks with administration will allow the unit to open.
He noted the area has been built and all that is needed is operating funding to hire nurses and technologists to run the unit.
Alberta Health Services' Gudmundson said administrators are behind the proposal and hope to develop a plan to address the issue in the coming weeks.
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
Cash shortage means unit may not open
By Michelle Lang, Calgary HeraldJune 17, 2009 6:47 AM
Cardiologists are calling on Alberta's medical superboard to open a promised intensive care area for heart patients at a newly constructed wing of Peter Lougheed Hospital, saying a cash crunch has left the future of the unit uncertain.
Photograph by: Lorraine Hjalte, Calgary Herald
CALGARY - Cardiologists are calling on Alberta's medical superboard to open a promised intensive care area for heart patients at a newly constructed wing of Peter Lougheed Hospital, saying a cash crunch has left the future of the unit uncertain.
Alberta Health Services had planned to open a separate coronary care unit, offering close monitoring for patients with conditions like severe heart failure, when the northeast hospital moves its cardiology services to the new east wing later this year.
But the opening of the six-bed unit is in question because of Alberta Health Services' tight budget. Doctors are now in talks with administrators about the issue.
"This is an important service," said Dr. Hamid Banijamali, site leader for cardiology at Peter Lougheed, who hopes a deal can be reached with the superboard to open the area.
"There is a proper way of doing things, and that is to have a unit that is independent."
Alberta Health Services officials said they are working with concerned physicians in an effort to open the area in the new wing.
"We are working through the budgetary issues and we are optimistic," said Sue Gudmundson, the superboard's vice-president for Peter Lougheed Centre. "It's a priority."
Uncertainty surrounding the unit is one of several challenges facing the $222-million expansion at Peter Lougheed, which was built to add beds to Calgary's space-strapped health system.
The superboard, grappling with an estimated$500-million deficit, said this spring it may close some existing units at Peter Lougheed to find enough money to open the new 140-bed wing at the facility. A leaked superboard memo, released earlier this month, suggested the organization would need an additional $48 million to $50 million to open the new wing without closing old beds.
"The east wing was built with no commitment for operational funding," said the memo.
Opposition parties and lobby groups like the Friends of Medicare blamed the situation facing the coronary care unit on government's failure to adequately plan -- or fund --the opening of the hospital expansion.
"The focus is entirely on saving money," said Liberal Leader David Swann. "It's an example of poor planning and incompetence in the leadership of the health system."
Health Minister Ron Liepert was not available for comment late Tuesday.
Local cardiologists say issues with Peter Lougheed's coronary care unit began more than a year ago when the hospital's regular intensive care unit was facing a serious shortage of beds.
Cardiologists at the facility agreed they would temporarily give up the six-bed coronary care area to intensive care to help ease the space crunch.
The physicians made the concession on the understanding they would soon be moving into the new wing where an independent coronary care unit was being constructed.
In the meantime, doctors created a "pseudo" critical care area in the cardiology ward, using regular rooms for patients with severe heart attacks and other conditions.
Physicians say the situation is challenging because the rooms aren't designed for intensive care and it's difficult to fit the necessary equipment in the spaces.
"It's a stop-gap measure," said Dr. Deb Isaac, Calgary's director of cardiac transplant.
"But we knew it was for a good cause and we would have what we need in the new wing."
Isaac said it's disappointing the promised new unit is now facing funding challenges.
She said lumping the two areas together isn't providing the optimal level of care for patients.
Dr. Todd Anderson, Calgary division chief of cardiology for Alberta Health Services, agreed an independent coronary care unit is the standard of care and noted separate coronary care units exist at Foothills and Rockyview hospitals.
Anderson said he's confident talks with administration will allow the unit to open.
He noted the area has been built and all that is needed is operating funding to hire nurses and technologists to run the unit.
Alberta Health Services' Gudmundson said administrators are behind the proposal and hope to develop a plan to address the issue in the coming weeks.
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Heart Institute Delayed Again
Another day passes at vacant heart centre
Mazankowski Institute continues its life in limbo
By Jodie Sinnema, Edmonton JournalJune 16, 2009 8:19 AMComments (4)
Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks during the official opening of the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute on Thursday, May 1, 2008.
Photograph by: Greg Southam, Edmonton Journal
The Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute remains empty, despite earlier reports that suggested staff were expected to move in Monday, with patients following soon after.
"We're absolutely working on this," said Mark Kastner, spokesman for Alberta Health Services. "The moment we can move in, we will." He said the additional delays are primarily the result of construction deficiencies in the ventilation system and with fire safety devices.
"It will be delayed at least a couple more weeks," Kastner said. "I'm hesitant to give an actual start date because previous history has shown that usually ends up incorrect."
The health authority took over the keys for the building May 31, with plans to have staff move in June 15. Patients were expected to move into intensive-care units, operating theatres and general care areas about two weeks later.
The $217-million, 132-bed facility was first scheduled to open in September 2005, then in 2007.The delays involved a series of missteps, including the erection of a countdown clock on the construction site that had to be taken down, as well as a premature grand opening ceremony with a speech from Prime Minister Stephen Harper last May.
Documents obtained by the Journal through a Freedom of Information request suggested the repeated delays were caused by more than 1,000 construction changes and constant bickering between the health authority and the construction company. Administrators expressed concern the delays may have embarrassed the government, caused potential harm to patients and cost Alberta key medical recruits and hundreds of thousands of dollars in late fees.
Those fees--$300,000 to$500,000 for each monthly delay after March 31--ended when the health authority took control of the building May 31, Kastner said.
"Obviously, there are costs in terms of the delay getting patients in, but there are no costs to the taxpayer," Kastner said. "A project of that magnitude, there are usually some construction delays.
There are always deficiencies in a large project that have to be rectified. The difference is, in this case, I think, there was some public expectation of us moving in there earlier than was realistic. That may be our fault for suggesting we may be ready before we were."
David Eggen, executive director for Friends of Medicare, said Albertans should expect better.
"When you're spending on perhaps the biggest ticket item that Alberta Health(and Wellness) built in many years, you would expect to see better management," Eggen said. "It's been one disaster after another. It's unfortunate, because they tied up so much public funds and so much focus on a place that keeps getting delayed."
Kevin Taft, Liberal MLA for Edmonton-Riverview, said the empty heart institute is a symbol of all that's going wrong in the health system.
"It's deeply disappointing. It's very distressing that the minister couldn't live up to his word," Taft said. "It feels to me like the health-care system is like a human body that has suffered a real trauma and it's starting to go into shock. There is a sense of paralysis and of systems really starting to break down."
He said the people who led the charge to build the heart institute in Edmonton, and those with the vision to make Edmonton the Mayo Clinic of the north, are all gone.
"It's like they took the head off," Taft said. "I think this is the predictable result of the decision to dissolve all the regional health authorities and the cancer board without having any real plan."
Taft said Alberta needs a heart institute, not only to reduce wait times for cardiac care, but to free up other medical space.
"This is gut-check time for (Premier) Ed Stelmach's credibility," Taft said.
"This is a black eye for Alberta's health system. If this was the only problem, you'd quickly bounce back.
The concern is that there are much more widespread problems."
jsinnema@thejournal.canwest.com
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal
Mazankowski Institute continues its life in limbo
By Jodie Sinnema, Edmonton JournalJune 16, 2009 8:19 AMComments (4)
Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks during the official opening of the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute on Thursday, May 1, 2008.
Photograph by: Greg Southam, Edmonton Journal
The Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute remains empty, despite earlier reports that suggested staff were expected to move in Monday, with patients following soon after.
"We're absolutely working on this," said Mark Kastner, spokesman for Alberta Health Services. "The moment we can move in, we will." He said the additional delays are primarily the result of construction deficiencies in the ventilation system and with fire safety devices.
"It will be delayed at least a couple more weeks," Kastner said. "I'm hesitant to give an actual start date because previous history has shown that usually ends up incorrect."
The health authority took over the keys for the building May 31, with plans to have staff move in June 15. Patients were expected to move into intensive-care units, operating theatres and general care areas about two weeks later.
The $217-million, 132-bed facility was first scheduled to open in September 2005, then in 2007.The delays involved a series of missteps, including the erection of a countdown clock on the construction site that had to be taken down, as well as a premature grand opening ceremony with a speech from Prime Minister Stephen Harper last May.
Documents obtained by the Journal through a Freedom of Information request suggested the repeated delays were caused by more than 1,000 construction changes and constant bickering between the health authority and the construction company. Administrators expressed concern the delays may have embarrassed the government, caused potential harm to patients and cost Alberta key medical recruits and hundreds of thousands of dollars in late fees.
Those fees--$300,000 to$500,000 for each monthly delay after March 31--ended when the health authority took control of the building May 31, Kastner said.
"Obviously, there are costs in terms of the delay getting patients in, but there are no costs to the taxpayer," Kastner said. "A project of that magnitude, there are usually some construction delays.
There are always deficiencies in a large project that have to be rectified. The difference is, in this case, I think, there was some public expectation of us moving in there earlier than was realistic. That may be our fault for suggesting we may be ready before we were."
David Eggen, executive director for Friends of Medicare, said Albertans should expect better.
"When you're spending on perhaps the biggest ticket item that Alberta Health(and Wellness) built in many years, you would expect to see better management," Eggen said. "It's been one disaster after another. It's unfortunate, because they tied up so much public funds and so much focus on a place that keeps getting delayed."
Kevin Taft, Liberal MLA for Edmonton-Riverview, said the empty heart institute is a symbol of all that's going wrong in the health system.
"It's deeply disappointing. It's very distressing that the minister couldn't live up to his word," Taft said. "It feels to me like the health-care system is like a human body that has suffered a real trauma and it's starting to go into shock. There is a sense of paralysis and of systems really starting to break down."
He said the people who led the charge to build the heart institute in Edmonton, and those with the vision to make Edmonton the Mayo Clinic of the north, are all gone.
"It's like they took the head off," Taft said. "I think this is the predictable result of the decision to dissolve all the regional health authorities and the cancer board without having any real plan."
Taft said Alberta needs a heart institute, not only to reduce wait times for cardiac care, but to free up other medical space.
"This is gut-check time for (Premier) Ed Stelmach's credibility," Taft said.
"This is a black eye for Alberta's health system. If this was the only problem, you'd quickly bounce back.
The concern is that there are much more widespread problems."
jsinnema@thejournal.canwest.com
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal
Line in the sand
Press Release16 June 2009LETHBRIDGE -- The son of a retired minister suffering from Alzheimer’s dementia is beginning an official campaign to re-open long term care beds at St. Michael’s health centre and to help stop the deregulation of health care in Alberta. Virgil Grandfield, a disaster relief worker and long-time resident of Lethbridge, will unfurl a campaign banner at his home across the street from St. Michael’s today. “I want to draw a ‘Line in the Sand for Medicare’ right here and now, for my dad and for the care of all the province‘s seniors,” says Grandfield. “I will put out a call for volunteers - people of all parties and fans of all teams - to help us in the fight.”Grandfield says, “My father gave his life to others, and his generation gave us the gift of Medicare. We want to take care of them and protect their gift from this government.”Grandfield says he decided to launch the “Line in the Sand” campaign after Lethbridge West MLA Greg Weadick suggested he visit the dementia ward at a new “designated assisted living“ facility scheduled to replace long term care at St. Michael‘s. “I took the tour, and I was profoundly disappointed,” says Grandfield. He says he learned there would be no 24-hour onsite RN to supervise care and only five LPNs to care for 160 people at the larger facility. He says even worse was the design of the dementia units. “For independent outdoor space, the wards only have concrete ‘dog runs’ with floor-to-ceiling bars.“While St. Michael’s has a living, caring space for dementia sufferers, with ample secured outdoor spaces, the province’s new wards are really ‘assisted dying' facilities, says Grandfield. “We’re not letting my dad go there.”Grandfield says the province’s new deregulation plan is dismantling long term care to make way for two-tier privatized nursing care. “Maybe Mr. Weadick could afford a nice private nursing home for his family. We can‘t.”Grandfield says there are 1,500 seniors assessed and waiting for long term care in the province, 750 of them in urgent care beds because no suitable places are available. He said the government is cutting beds to create a demand for its new private partners in deregulation. Grandfield says Weadick claimed the health zone might open a wing of rooms at the hospital for seniors awaiting long term care,“ says Grandfield. “I told him that makes absolutely no sense when you have vacant long term care beds at St. Michael’s.“The government’s plan is about a corporate agenda, not people’s health.” Grandfield says the province’s seniors and health care are far too important to allow another disastrous and expensive deregulation. “We are going to fight Health Minister Liepert and his new band of deregulators, and we are going to win.”Grandfield will unfurl the banner at his home at 836 - 13 St. S. at 10a.m. -30-virgilgrandfield@hotmail.com(403) 320 5703BiographiesMaxwell Ross Grandfield, born in Nipawin, Saskatchewan in 1936, is an ordained minister who worked in South America, Africa and all over Western Canada and the United States for over 40 years. He is suffering from Alzheimer’s dementia and was recently committed to the Geriatrics Assessment and Rehabilitation Unit at the Lethbridge Regional Hospital. He is being treated and observed while his placement options are considered.Virgil Grandfield is the fifth of Maxwell’s 13 children. Virgil was born in Alberta in 1967 and grew up in Texas. He graduated from the University of Lethbridge in 1992, and after finishing graduate school in Montreal, started Mexico‘s first Canadian educational consulting firm, which he sold in 1997 (www.classeducation.com). He has also been a beekeeper and hospital Spanish interpreter in Texas and a humanitarian aid worker in Latin America and S.E. Asia. Grandfield most recently participated in two Red Cross tsunami operations in Indonesia, where he acted as the team leader for multi-national rescue and relief operations for the Nias Earthquake, produced a psycho-social support radio show, advocated for human rights of construction workers, and helped two villages save the lives of four highly endangered Sumatran tigers.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
CBC News Story
Friends of Medicare launch campaign against Alberta health cuts
Last Updated: Thursday, June 11, 2009 6:32 PM ET Comments2Recommend2
CBC News
Friends of Medicare executive director David Eggen announces a campaign against cuts to Alberta's health-care system Thursday in Edmonton. (CBC)Friends of Medicare will use billboards, print ads and messages posted on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to mobilize the public against cuts the province is making to Alberta's health-care system, the group announced Thursday.
"We believe emphatically, and I think most Albertans do agree, that the government is heading down the wrong way," said David Eggen, executive director of the public health-care advocacy group.
Eggen spoke to reporters while standing in front of four banners that read, "More health cuts? Wrong way," that will be used by community organizers around the province.
The group is alarmed about changes the province has already made, including reported hiring freezes, cancelled surgeries and the delisting of services. The province's new single health board, Alberta Health Services, is dealing with a deficit that is believed to be at least $500,000, and there are concerns there are more cuts to come.
The campaign is not just a way to get the public to put pressure on the government; it will also act as a "beacon" to those who have been personally affected, Eggen said.
Alberta Health Minister Ron Liepert speaks to reporters at an event in Calgary on Thursday. (CBC)"I think it gives Albertans a sense of hope to know we're not just going to roll over and let our government pull our public health-care system from underneath us," he said.
In Calgary, Health Minister Ron Liepert dismissed the group's concerns and said Albertans support the actions the government is taking.
"There are certain groups out there that don't want things to change," he said. "We have laid out a plan for health care in this province. Everywhere I go people say you are doing the right thing. We need to recognize that the health-care system isn't sustainable the way it is. So, we won't be changing our course of action.
"We have a plan, and we are going to follow it."
Last week, the United Nurses of Alberta filed a grievance with Alberta Health Services for not posting job vacancies at the same time it is denying nurses vacation time and making them work overtime. But Liepert denied there is a hiring freeze in place.
"There isn't a hiring freeze, but you are going to have to talk to Alberta Health Services about exactly the hiring policies that are underway right now. Obviously, they have got a challenge with the budget that they've got, and they are attempting to meet that challenge."
The province has backed down on previous attempts to privatize the health-care system, Eggen said, so he thinks the campaign could make a difference.
"I know the government is watching very closely, and we're just hoping to serve as a lightning rod for the popular discontent that's all around us here."
Last Updated: Thursday, June 11, 2009 6:32 PM ET Comments2Recommend2
CBC News
Friends of Medicare executive director David Eggen announces a campaign against cuts to Alberta's health-care system Thursday in Edmonton. (CBC)Friends of Medicare will use billboards, print ads and messages posted on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to mobilize the public against cuts the province is making to Alberta's health-care system, the group announced Thursday.
"We believe emphatically, and I think most Albertans do agree, that the government is heading down the wrong way," said David Eggen, executive director of the public health-care advocacy group.
Eggen spoke to reporters while standing in front of four banners that read, "More health cuts? Wrong way," that will be used by community organizers around the province.
The group is alarmed about changes the province has already made, including reported hiring freezes, cancelled surgeries and the delisting of services. The province's new single health board, Alberta Health Services, is dealing with a deficit that is believed to be at least $500,000, and there are concerns there are more cuts to come.
The campaign is not just a way to get the public to put pressure on the government; it will also act as a "beacon" to those who have been personally affected, Eggen said.
Alberta Health Minister Ron Liepert speaks to reporters at an event in Calgary on Thursday. (CBC)"I think it gives Albertans a sense of hope to know we're not just going to roll over and let our government pull our public health-care system from underneath us," he said.
In Calgary, Health Minister Ron Liepert dismissed the group's concerns and said Albertans support the actions the government is taking.
"There are certain groups out there that don't want things to change," he said. "We have laid out a plan for health care in this province. Everywhere I go people say you are doing the right thing. We need to recognize that the health-care system isn't sustainable the way it is. So, we won't be changing our course of action.
"We have a plan, and we are going to follow it."
Last week, the United Nurses of Alberta filed a grievance with Alberta Health Services for not posting job vacancies at the same time it is denying nurses vacation time and making them work overtime. But Liepert denied there is a hiring freeze in place.
"There isn't a hiring freeze, but you are going to have to talk to Alberta Health Services about exactly the hiring policies that are underway right now. Obviously, they have got a challenge with the budget that they've got, and they are attempting to meet that challenge."
The province has backed down on previous attempts to privatize the health-care system, Eggen said, so he thinks the campaign could make a difference.
"I know the government is watching very closely, and we're just hoping to serve as a lightning rod for the popular discontent that's all around us here."
Friends of Medicare Launches campaign
EDMONTON — Friends of Medicare is spending more than $100,000 to galvanize popular support across the province to pressure the government to stop its hiring freeze, surgical cuts and changes to hospital construction plans.
Digital billboards are already flashing with messages that the government is heading the “wrong way” with its changes to health care. Messages will soon be posted to popular social networking sites Twitter and Facebook, urging people to speak out against Alberta Health Services’ expected $500,000 deficit, cuts to elective surgeries and the government’s delisting of chiropractic services and sex-change operations.
“We believe emphatically, and I think most Albertans do agree, that the government is heading down the wrong way, and heading down the wrong way is dangerous,” said David Eggen, executive director of Friends of Medicare. “It puts our public health-care system in jeopardy and it puts public safety and security in jeopardy too.”
Last month, Alberta Health Services told the Royal Alexandra Hospital to cut 15 per cent of elective surgeries to keep the hospital budget the same this fiscal quarter as last. Since then, cancer surgeries, knee, hip and eye surgeries have been postponed to save money, and health-care workers suspects the cuts will move beyond the walls of the one hospital.
In Calgary, people needing cataract surgeries have seen their wait times grow after the cash-strapped health authority slashed the number of procedures it purchased.
Major long-anticipated hospital projects across the province, including ones in Grande Prairie and Sherwood Park, are on hold while the government decides how to proceed, leaving community members skeptical of the outcome.
Eggen said his provincewide campaign will serve as a beacon to those who are anxious about the state of public health care in Alberta. He said similar campaigns against Bill 11 and the province’s so-called Third Way forced the government to abandon plans to introduce more private health care.
“I know the government is watching very closely and we’re just hoping to serve as a lightning rod for the discontent that is all around us here,” Eggen said, noting that Friends of Medicare has collected 17,000 signatures on its petition asking the government to “cease and desist” in its changes.
“Good quality public health care is expensive, but good quality public health care is job No. 1 for the provincial government to administer and deliver. … It’s expensive of course, but it’s worth it.”
He said there is a better way to bring changes to the health system.
“If you’ve having trouble balancing your budget and your finances in your house, you don’t stop looking after the members of your family,” Eggen said. “We’re not just going to roll over and let the government pull our public health care system out from underneath us.”
Digital billboards are already flashing with messages that the government is heading the “wrong way” with its changes to health care. Messages will soon be posted to popular social networking sites Twitter and Facebook, urging people to speak out against Alberta Health Services’ expected $500,000 deficit, cuts to elective surgeries and the government’s delisting of chiropractic services and sex-change operations.
“We believe emphatically, and I think most Albertans do agree, that the government is heading down the wrong way, and heading down the wrong way is dangerous,” said David Eggen, executive director of Friends of Medicare. “It puts our public health-care system in jeopardy and it puts public safety and security in jeopardy too.”
Last month, Alberta Health Services told the Royal Alexandra Hospital to cut 15 per cent of elective surgeries to keep the hospital budget the same this fiscal quarter as last. Since then, cancer surgeries, knee, hip and eye surgeries have been postponed to save money, and health-care workers suspects the cuts will move beyond the walls of the one hospital.
In Calgary, people needing cataract surgeries have seen their wait times grow after the cash-strapped health authority slashed the number of procedures it purchased.
Major long-anticipated hospital projects across the province, including ones in Grande Prairie and Sherwood Park, are on hold while the government decides how to proceed, leaving community members skeptical of the outcome.
Eggen said his provincewide campaign will serve as a beacon to those who are anxious about the state of public health care in Alberta. He said similar campaigns against Bill 11 and the province’s so-called Third Way forced the government to abandon plans to introduce more private health care.
“I know the government is watching very closely and we’re just hoping to serve as a lightning rod for the discontent that is all around us here,” Eggen said, noting that Friends of Medicare has collected 17,000 signatures on its petition asking the government to “cease and desist” in its changes.
“Good quality public health care is expensive, but good quality public health care is job No. 1 for the provincial government to administer and deliver. … It’s expensive of course, but it’s worth it.”
He said there is a better way to bring changes to the health system.
“If you’ve having trouble balancing your budget and your finances in your house, you don’t stop looking after the members of your family,” Eggen said. “We’re not just going to roll over and let the government pull our public health care system out from underneath us.”
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Letter from a friend of medicare in Lethbridge
A Sermon for Alberta and Our Builders
My father, a minister for over 40 years, has been hospitalized for Alzheimer's dementia and needs long term care. While he is treated and assessed for placement, I am working to get the government to re-open long term care beds at St. Michael's health centre and to stop its attack on seniors' health care everywhere in the province. We have three more weeks.Each night, I go to the hospital to give my father a warm shower and a shave, because it calms him for the sleep he must have if he is to be manageable at all the next day. Once he is tucked in, I read to him from his bible. Last night in Chapter 3, Verse 3 of the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews - dad's favourite book - I read this passage which yet rings in my ears: “He who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.” Last summer, when I really knew that my father's mind was rapidly dying, I sat with him for a few long days to write down all he could remember of his life. He told me his grandfather, father and uncles – rough-handed stone masons and farmers from England - homesteaded in northern Saskatchewan a century ago. There, to plant a crop meant to hew each acre one tree at a time out of the thick forest, hitching, prying and pulling each stump, and finally working the soil with horse and plow. In pioneering that land, men and women of Dad's family weathered cold and hardship we cannot imagine. Through the Depression, my father and his brothers once survived for weeks on a soup bone which they boiled over and over. My dad missed much of his schooling because of a pneumonia from which he still suffers at times. I asked Dad how they stayed warm in winters, when the cold reached 50 below and froze the lungs of their faithful horse, Fly - when blizzard-blinded neighbours died ice-gripped to fenceposts: “We were never warm,” he said.My father also told me of the day his own father - rough-handed and big-hearted as any man - sat by the side of the road and cried his heart out, wanting to go back home to gentle England. Last summer, my Dad also told me about one of his uncles - tipped from a wheelbarrow and brain damaged as a boy – who one day started going from homestead-to-homestead on a singular, crazy campaign: “Vote CFF, Vote CFF,” he would prattle and rave everywhere, to everyone, getting laughs from people that he couldn't even get the name right: the name was CCF, a progressive political party - born in Alberta - called the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation. My father's crazy uncle got the last and sweetest laugh. Together, in the hardest place on earth, those rough-handed, big-hearted stone masons and farmers voted CCF and built a towering monument of gentle greatness which looms grander than any pyramid on earth - the world's first and only Universal Health Care system. Recently, the Government of Alberta invited managers with soft hands, sharp eyes and quiet guile to come undermine the foundations of the tower which our grandparents and parents built and gave us to maintain and increase. While shifty and loud lookouts in the capitol distract and dissimulate, their quick, silent cohorts are already in the tower doing their work. While hundreds of parents and grandparents like my father across the province wait for proper health care – these soft, quiet privateers are deliberately weakening the walls, closing facilities and pawning health care piecemeal to waiting fencers. When Alberta's numbers of Alzheimer's dementia sufferers like my father will have tripled within two decades, these strangers with soft, sticky hands will be long gone or safe in their private chateaus, their pockets filled and the walls of our public domain crumbling behind them. In his mid-30s, my father's ministry and pneumonia took him south for a time, and I would grew up in a place where health care is business. I went without a doctor as a boy, I returned as an adult to work in the hospitals of their rich and wards of their poor. I know the counterfeit thing these soft-handed burglars would leave in the house when they have taken our treasure. Our government opened the gates of the tower to these burglars and privateers and is leaving our best generation at their mercy. To “bring down the cost of health care,” they push off our seniors - our builders - into for-profit residences which will cost twice as much, as if we are stupidly glad to save a buck in order to lose two. “It's a residence, not health care,” they say, as if the egg exists separately from its shell. The government and its deft dealers play this dangerous shell game, and our greatest generation faces an end they did not deserve. They who had nothing yet gave us Medicare are abandoned now by this oil-soaked generation which has everything and yet says we cannot afford it. Our seniors are devalued, dishonored, shaken down and left to fend for themselves in the rubble of the tower they built. Do we have sentries to guard the tower and its treasure from any and all encroachers? Are there yet rough-handed, big-hearted builders in this country? Do we have it in us to be great – to honour our parents and the house they built? On this morning's visit to the hospital, I brought dad a photo album. In it, we came across a picture of him in his prime as a street preacher, with a favourite scripture of his written at the bottom. It was Isaiah Chapter 58, Verse 1: “Cry aloud and spare not... Lift up they voice like a trumpet.”
My father, a minister for over 40 years, has been hospitalized for Alzheimer's dementia and needs long term care. While he is treated and assessed for placement, I am working to get the government to re-open long term care beds at St. Michael's health centre and to stop its attack on seniors' health care everywhere in the province. We have three more weeks.Each night, I go to the hospital to give my father a warm shower and a shave, because it calms him for the sleep he must have if he is to be manageable at all the next day. Once he is tucked in, I read to him from his bible. Last night in Chapter 3, Verse 3 of the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews - dad's favourite book - I read this passage which yet rings in my ears: “He who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.” Last summer, when I really knew that my father's mind was rapidly dying, I sat with him for a few long days to write down all he could remember of his life. He told me his grandfather, father and uncles – rough-handed stone masons and farmers from England - homesteaded in northern Saskatchewan a century ago. There, to plant a crop meant to hew each acre one tree at a time out of the thick forest, hitching, prying and pulling each stump, and finally working the soil with horse and plow. In pioneering that land, men and women of Dad's family weathered cold and hardship we cannot imagine. Through the Depression, my father and his brothers once survived for weeks on a soup bone which they boiled over and over. My dad missed much of his schooling because of a pneumonia from which he still suffers at times. I asked Dad how they stayed warm in winters, when the cold reached 50 below and froze the lungs of their faithful horse, Fly - when blizzard-blinded neighbours died ice-gripped to fenceposts: “We were never warm,” he said.My father also told me of the day his own father - rough-handed and big-hearted as any man - sat by the side of the road and cried his heart out, wanting to go back home to gentle England. Last summer, my Dad also told me about one of his uncles - tipped from a wheelbarrow and brain damaged as a boy – who one day started going from homestead-to-homestead on a singular, crazy campaign: “Vote CFF, Vote CFF,” he would prattle and rave everywhere, to everyone, getting laughs from people that he couldn't even get the name right: the name was CCF, a progressive political party - born in Alberta - called the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation. My father's crazy uncle got the last and sweetest laugh. Together, in the hardest place on earth, those rough-handed, big-hearted stone masons and farmers voted CCF and built a towering monument of gentle greatness which looms grander than any pyramid on earth - the world's first and only Universal Health Care system. Recently, the Government of Alberta invited managers with soft hands, sharp eyes and quiet guile to come undermine the foundations of the tower which our grandparents and parents built and gave us to maintain and increase. While shifty and loud lookouts in the capitol distract and dissimulate, their quick, silent cohorts are already in the tower doing their work. While hundreds of parents and grandparents like my father across the province wait for proper health care – these soft, quiet privateers are deliberately weakening the walls, closing facilities and pawning health care piecemeal to waiting fencers. When Alberta's numbers of Alzheimer's dementia sufferers like my father will have tripled within two decades, these strangers with soft, sticky hands will be long gone or safe in their private chateaus, their pockets filled and the walls of our public domain crumbling behind them. In his mid-30s, my father's ministry and pneumonia took him south for a time, and I would grew up in a place where health care is business. I went without a doctor as a boy, I returned as an adult to work in the hospitals of their rich and wards of their poor. I know the counterfeit thing these soft-handed burglars would leave in the house when they have taken our treasure. Our government opened the gates of the tower to these burglars and privateers and is leaving our best generation at their mercy. To “bring down the cost of health care,” they push off our seniors - our builders - into for-profit residences which will cost twice as much, as if we are stupidly glad to save a buck in order to lose two. “It's a residence, not health care,” they say, as if the egg exists separately from its shell. The government and its deft dealers play this dangerous shell game, and our greatest generation faces an end they did not deserve. They who had nothing yet gave us Medicare are abandoned now by this oil-soaked generation which has everything and yet says we cannot afford it. Our seniors are devalued, dishonored, shaken down and left to fend for themselves in the rubble of the tower they built. Do we have sentries to guard the tower and its treasure from any and all encroachers? Are there yet rough-handed, big-hearted builders in this country? Do we have it in us to be great – to honour our parents and the house they built? On this morning's visit to the hospital, I brought dad a photo album. In it, we came across a picture of him in his prime as a street preacher, with a favourite scripture of his written at the bottom. It was Isaiah Chapter 58, Verse 1: “Cry aloud and spare not... Lift up they voice like a trumpet.”
Friday, June 5, 2009
Mayor vows to fight for Lacombe’s hospital
Doesn’t want to see leaked letter become realilty
Updated 2 days ago
LISA JOY
Globe Editor
If Lacombe’s hospital is downgraded to an urgent care center, it would hurt the community, says Mayor Judy Gordon.
“It’s an economic stimulus. It provides well-paid professional jobs and enticement for people to retire in our community.”
A leaked letter last month by Friends of Medicare suggesting the provincial government is considering downgrading 10 hospitals and closing five health facilities in rural Central Alberta to save money.
After attending the Lacombe-Ponoka P.C. annual general meeting Thursday in Ponoka, Gordon said Ron Liepert, Minister of Health and Wellness, assured her Lacombe’s hospital won’t be downgraded.
“My concerns are alleviated by his comments,” said Gordon, who added that she and council will remain vigilant and proactive to ensure Lacombe’s hospital is not downgraded.
Lacombe’s hospital, as well as Red Deer’s, are at more than 100% utilization so downgrading is not the answer says Gordon.
“You can’t take a number of people from any community and process them through Red Deer Regional without hardships and less effectiveness and more dollars to do more renovations.”
Instead, Gordon said she’d like to see Lacombe’s hospital expanded.
"We have a good hospital here and a lot of good land adjacent to it.”
Previously, Lacombe-Ponoka MLA Ray Prins slammed the leaked letter calling it a “drive-by fear mongering.”
Prins said because the Lacombe hospital is one of the fastest growing ones in the area, the government has no plans to downgrade the facility and wants to improve its services.
-editor@lacombeglobe.com
Doesn’t want to see leaked letter become realilty
Updated 2 days ago
LISA JOY
Globe Editor
If Lacombe’s hospital is downgraded to an urgent care center, it would hurt the community, says Mayor Judy Gordon.
“It’s an economic stimulus. It provides well-paid professional jobs and enticement for people to retire in our community.”
A leaked letter last month by Friends of Medicare suggesting the provincial government is considering downgrading 10 hospitals and closing five health facilities in rural Central Alberta to save money.
After attending the Lacombe-Ponoka P.C. annual general meeting Thursday in Ponoka, Gordon said Ron Liepert, Minister of Health and Wellness, assured her Lacombe’s hospital won’t be downgraded.
“My concerns are alleviated by his comments,” said Gordon, who added that she and council will remain vigilant and proactive to ensure Lacombe’s hospital is not downgraded.
Lacombe’s hospital, as well as Red Deer’s, are at more than 100% utilization so downgrading is not the answer says Gordon.
“You can’t take a number of people from any community and process them through Red Deer Regional without hardships and less effectiveness and more dollars to do more renovations.”
Instead, Gordon said she’d like to see Lacombe’s hospital expanded.
"We have a good hospital here and a lot of good land adjacent to it.”
Previously, Lacombe-Ponoka MLA Ray Prins slammed the leaked letter calling it a “drive-by fear mongering.”
Prins said because the Lacombe hospital is one of the fastest growing ones in the area, the government has no plans to downgrade the facility and wants to improve its services.
-editor@lacombeglobe.com
Trouble in Strathmore
Bill Duke
Editor
In an effort to spur the provincial government into action regarding Strathmore’s hospital expansion, more than 120 local seniors staged a demonstration outside the hospital grounds Friday morning.
Some were in wheelchairs, others brought lawn chairs in which to sit. Most gathered under a tree in an attempt to stay out of the sun.
But they didn’t hesitate in letting their opinions be known.
Joining enthusiastic and determined group were members of two organizations: Coalition of Seniors Advocates (COSA) and Friends of Medicare (FOM).
Armed with a microphone, audio system and supportive audience, retired nurse Marian Peck kicked off the proceedings by reading Premier Ed Stelmach’s now infamous promise from last February.
While campaigning for reelection, Stelmach stopped in Strathmore and promised that an expansion to Strathmore’s inadequate hospital facility was a done deal.
The plan called for the total number of long-term care beds to be increased from 23 to 100, allowing for a major renovation to the hospital’s cramped emergency room quarters.
That very clear promise was made last February, yet no progress has been made since then.
Strathmore’s proposed AgeCare facility has further complicated the process as the province had indicated that the AgeCare building would essentially take the place of the hospital addition.
Continued After Advertisement Below
Advertisement
$(document).ready(
function()
{
//find out where the end of the initial script tag is.
if (!$("#banZone").html())
return;
var cutoff = $("#banZone").html().toLowerCase().replace(/ /g, "").replace(/\r\n/g, "").indexOf("/script>") + 8;
var adzoneHTML = $("#banZone").html().toLowerCase().replace(/ /g, "").replace(/\r\n/g, "").substring(cutoff);
//get the remaining substring. Take the first six characters of that.
var banzone = adzoneHTML.substring(0, 6);
//If there is no banner data associated to that zone, the substring found
//above will contain the closing div tag of the banner. If it has data,
//there will be something else in its place. If no data, hide the banner.
if (banzone == "")
{
$("#banZone").css("display", "none");
}
});
The Tories have backed off that claim in recent weeks, yet the status of Strathmore’s long-term care patients remains very much in a state of flux.
This was the second protest local seniors have staged this year. The first was a much smaller demonstration in which 30 or so people took to the sidewalk with signs and chants back in April.
This time, the crowd was much larger and the message clearer: the Conservatives need to take care of seniors or risk losing power in Alberta.
Following Peck to the podium was retired farmer Steve Bothi, who reminded those in attendance about the fate the Social Credit Party and its leader suffered in 1971.
“Harry Strom got a little bit arrogant. It was this generation that tossed him out on his butt and he hasn’t been seen since,” said Bothi.
“What we have to tell Ed is, ‘Do you want to be the next Harry Strom?’”
The crowd cheered often during the handful of speeches, shouting messages support for the speakers and chants of “Shame!” directed at the government and MLA Arno Doerksen.
“We’ve got to work together to drive this agenda on our terms,” said Bothi before urging the crowd to contact Doerksen to express their frustrations.
“We don’t have to take this. We deserve better.”
Also speaking at the demonstration was Todd Waynillowicz of Friends of Medicare, a group dedicated to promoting and protecting public health care in Alberta.
“The quality and accessibility of seniors’ care has been eroding. We need to make (the government) do some work to earn their pay.”
After a few more speakers took the podium, Peck wrapped up the evening by sharing her dismay that Doerksen didn’t attend the rally.
She urged the crowd to oust the Tory government if past promises aren’t kept and declared Doerksen “finished.”
Peck made it clear that Friday’s event was only the beginning of the seniors’ push to get the facility that Strathmore so desperately needs.
One thing they aren’t is finished.
Editor
In an effort to spur the provincial government into action regarding Strathmore’s hospital expansion, more than 120 local seniors staged a demonstration outside the hospital grounds Friday morning.
Some were in wheelchairs, others brought lawn chairs in which to sit. Most gathered under a tree in an attempt to stay out of the sun.
But they didn’t hesitate in letting their opinions be known.
Joining enthusiastic and determined group were members of two organizations: Coalition of Seniors Advocates (COSA) and Friends of Medicare (FOM).
Armed with a microphone, audio system and supportive audience, retired nurse Marian Peck kicked off the proceedings by reading Premier Ed Stelmach’s now infamous promise from last February.
While campaigning for reelection, Stelmach stopped in Strathmore and promised that an expansion to Strathmore’s inadequate hospital facility was a done deal.
The plan called for the total number of long-term care beds to be increased from 23 to 100, allowing for a major renovation to the hospital’s cramped emergency room quarters.
That very clear promise was made last February, yet no progress has been made since then.
Strathmore’s proposed AgeCare facility has further complicated the process as the province had indicated that the AgeCare building would essentially take the place of the hospital addition.
Continued After Advertisement Below
Advertisement
$(document).ready(
function()
{
//find out where the end of the initial script tag is.
if (!$("#banZone").html())
return;
var cutoff = $("#banZone").html().toLowerCase().replace(/ /g, "").replace(/\r\n/g, "").indexOf("/script>") + 8;
var adzoneHTML = $("#banZone").html().toLowerCase().replace(/ /g, "").replace(/\r\n/g, "").substring(cutoff);
//get the remaining substring. Take the first six characters of that.
var banzone = adzoneHTML.substring(0, 6);
//If there is no banner data associated to that zone, the substring found
//above will contain the closing div tag of the banner. If it has data,
//there will be something else in its place. If no data, hide the banner.
if (banzone == "")
{
$("#banZone").css("display", "none");
}
});
The Tories have backed off that claim in recent weeks, yet the status of Strathmore’s long-term care patients remains very much in a state of flux.
This was the second protest local seniors have staged this year. The first was a much smaller demonstration in which 30 or so people took to the sidewalk with signs and chants back in April.
This time, the crowd was much larger and the message clearer: the Conservatives need to take care of seniors or risk losing power in Alberta.
Following Peck to the podium was retired farmer Steve Bothi, who reminded those in attendance about the fate the Social Credit Party and its leader suffered in 1971.
“Harry Strom got a little bit arrogant. It was this generation that tossed him out on his butt and he hasn’t been seen since,” said Bothi.
“What we have to tell Ed is, ‘Do you want to be the next Harry Strom?’”
The crowd cheered often during the handful of speeches, shouting messages support for the speakers and chants of “Shame!” directed at the government and MLA Arno Doerksen.
“We’ve got to work together to drive this agenda on our terms,” said Bothi before urging the crowd to contact Doerksen to express their frustrations.
“We don’t have to take this. We deserve better.”
Also speaking at the demonstration was Todd Waynillowicz of Friends of Medicare, a group dedicated to promoting and protecting public health care in Alberta.
“The quality and accessibility of seniors’ care has been eroding. We need to make (the government) do some work to earn their pay.”
After a few more speakers took the podium, Peck wrapped up the evening by sharing her dismay that Doerksen didn’t attend the rally.
She urged the crowd to oust the Tory government if past promises aren’t kept and declared Doerksen “finished.”
Peck made it clear that Friday’s event was only the beginning of the seniors’ push to get the facility that Strathmore so desperately needs.
One thing they aren’t is finished.
Lethbridge Herald
Province taking knife to long-term care
Written by Virgil Grandfield
Thursday, 04 June 2009
A few nights ago, I discovered my 75-year-old father trying to eat his soup with a knife.My father — a minister for over 40 years — has Alzheimer’s dementia. The Bible he once knew by heart he now struggles with like a child with his first book. He can no longer write letters of prayer and encouragements. His powers of speech are decimated, yet even so, by tangents, fumbles and gestures, he tells us every day that he wants to minister and live.My father cannot minister again because Alzheimer’s is killing the reasoning powers and memories he needs to live without constant care. He is sometimes delusional or will turn on his caregivers. He escapes and sometimes wanders into traffic, climbs into a stranger’s vehicle or falls asleep in a snowbank. He can’t bathe, feed or clothe himself without help. Lately, he has struggled to swallow — a frightening portent of the end. It has only been with constant attention, minute-to-minute care by my family that our father has survived thus far.Recently, I brought my sick father and exhausted mother to live in my Lethbridge home, which is kitty corner from St. Michael’s Health Centre. Three weeks ago, a kind staff member of St. Michael’s gave me a tour of their locked dementia unit. It was perfect: beautiful facilities, friendly, qualified staff, 24-hour nursing care, secured outdoor gardens, a greenhouse, and even a chapel. My guide also showed me an empty bed.With the right kind of help literally within sight, I immediately called the Chinook ACCESS number to begin the process of eventually getting Dad into a long-term care facility, with St. Michael’s as our primary choice. The agent, however, replied that St. Michael’s cannot be our primary choice because, for the past month, there has been a directive to stop all referrals to St. Michael’s. She said the government is shutting down the long-term care facilities at St. Michael’s as part of a transition of senior care to designated assisted living facilities.I immediately called an administrator of St. Michael’s to ask why they would give me a tour of the locked dementia unit for my father if there is already a moratorium on new placements to the facility. The administrator said St. Michael’s had not been informed of the moratorium, but she indicated she was not surprised, “with the way things have been going.”I have since heard many reasons for this “repurposing” of St. Michaels: that assisted living facilities fall outside of the Nursing Act, and therefore, seniors would have to pay for extra nursing services; that the “Super Board” is shifting nurses from senior care to be able to say there is no nursing shortage in Alberta; that St. Michael’s is slated to become a new private hospital in Lethbridge. When things are done so secretly, who can know what, why or where this is going?In the next few years, the Alberta government means to cut 7,000 long-term beds necessary for dementia patients like my father across the province, as part of the “Chinook Model” for senior care, for which Lethbridge is the guinea pig. Meanwhile, I have found many reports warning of a looming epidemic of Alzheimer’s, with the most conservative estimates predicting rates to triple in the population in the next two decades (www.alzheimers.ca, “The Rising Tide”). The government is going one direction while the future is going the other.This week, after a disturbing incident, my father was “certified” and admitted to the hospital’s geriatric assessment unit where he will be treated and observed for 30 days while his placement options are considered. The wonderful nurses in the unit have already noted that Dad cannot do the simplest things to care for himself; they, too, have seen him trying to eat his soup with a knife.I will not allow my father — who has given his whole life to others — to go someplace where he will have no right to the 24-hour nursing care or protection he needs to survive, where he would certainly die before his time. I have 30 days to show Albertans what their government is doing to their parents and grandparents — that, like my father’s dying brain, the Alberta government is myopically choosing a knife where other tools are necessary.Please help us remove the knife and keep St. Michael’s and the province’s other 7,000 long-term care beds open. We have 30 days.
Written by Virgil Grandfield
Thursday, 04 June 2009
A few nights ago, I discovered my 75-year-old father trying to eat his soup with a knife.My father — a minister for over 40 years — has Alzheimer’s dementia. The Bible he once knew by heart he now struggles with like a child with his first book. He can no longer write letters of prayer and encouragements. His powers of speech are decimated, yet even so, by tangents, fumbles and gestures, he tells us every day that he wants to minister and live.My father cannot minister again because Alzheimer’s is killing the reasoning powers and memories he needs to live without constant care. He is sometimes delusional or will turn on his caregivers. He escapes and sometimes wanders into traffic, climbs into a stranger’s vehicle or falls asleep in a snowbank. He can’t bathe, feed or clothe himself without help. Lately, he has struggled to swallow — a frightening portent of the end. It has only been with constant attention, minute-to-minute care by my family that our father has survived thus far.Recently, I brought my sick father and exhausted mother to live in my Lethbridge home, which is kitty corner from St. Michael’s Health Centre. Three weeks ago, a kind staff member of St. Michael’s gave me a tour of their locked dementia unit. It was perfect: beautiful facilities, friendly, qualified staff, 24-hour nursing care, secured outdoor gardens, a greenhouse, and even a chapel. My guide also showed me an empty bed.With the right kind of help literally within sight, I immediately called the Chinook ACCESS number to begin the process of eventually getting Dad into a long-term care facility, with St. Michael’s as our primary choice. The agent, however, replied that St. Michael’s cannot be our primary choice because, for the past month, there has been a directive to stop all referrals to St. Michael’s. She said the government is shutting down the long-term care facilities at St. Michael’s as part of a transition of senior care to designated assisted living facilities.I immediately called an administrator of St. Michael’s to ask why they would give me a tour of the locked dementia unit for my father if there is already a moratorium on new placements to the facility. The administrator said St. Michael’s had not been informed of the moratorium, but she indicated she was not surprised, “with the way things have been going.”I have since heard many reasons for this “repurposing” of St. Michaels: that assisted living facilities fall outside of the Nursing Act, and therefore, seniors would have to pay for extra nursing services; that the “Super Board” is shifting nurses from senior care to be able to say there is no nursing shortage in Alberta; that St. Michael’s is slated to become a new private hospital in Lethbridge. When things are done so secretly, who can know what, why or where this is going?In the next few years, the Alberta government means to cut 7,000 long-term beds necessary for dementia patients like my father across the province, as part of the “Chinook Model” for senior care, for which Lethbridge is the guinea pig. Meanwhile, I have found many reports warning of a looming epidemic of Alzheimer’s, with the most conservative estimates predicting rates to triple in the population in the next two decades (www.alzheimers.ca, “The Rising Tide”). The government is going one direction while the future is going the other.This week, after a disturbing incident, my father was “certified” and admitted to the hospital’s geriatric assessment unit where he will be treated and observed for 30 days while his placement options are considered. The wonderful nurses in the unit have already noted that Dad cannot do the simplest things to care for himself; they, too, have seen him trying to eat his soup with a knife.I will not allow my father — who has given his whole life to others — to go someplace where he will have no right to the 24-hour nursing care or protection he needs to survive, where he would certainly die before his time. I have 30 days to show Albertans what their government is doing to their parents and grandparents — that, like my father’s dying brain, the Alberta government is myopically choosing a knife where other tools are necessary.Please help us remove the knife and keep St. Michael’s and the province’s other 7,000 long-term care beds open. We have 30 days.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
.JPG)
