NDP will consult Albertans on health care
By Darcy Henton, edmontonjournal.comSeptember 29, 2009 6:39 AMBe the first to post a comment
EDMONTON — NDP Leader Brian Mason says his party will consult with Albertans about their concerns over healthcare reform since the provincial Conservative government won't.
Mason said Monday his party will hold seven public hearings around the province--starting with a meeting today in Calgary--to hear what Albertans have to say about the system and to give them an opportunity to suggest changes they think are needed.
"In our view, to bring about the magnitude of change in our healthcare system without consulting Albertans is unacceptable," Mason said.
The NDP leader criticized the Ed Stelmach government for refusing to declare its plans for health-care reform and for leaving Albertans, particularly seniors, in the dark about changes that could dramatically affect their lives.
"This is causing great anxiety among Albertans," Mason said. "They are so worried about what is going to happen and how much they are going to have to pay in their old age to find care. ... They are very concerned about how the government has not given them a chance to express their views."
The announcement by the opposition party comes on the heels of concerns expressed by the province's doctors about the lack of government consultation with them on health-care reform.
New Alberta Medical Association president Dr. Chip Doig says the provincial government needs to do a much better job of consulting with doctors about the coming changes.
"We're simply saying that all of us have something to bring to the table and we're willing and happy to be partners," he said. "That's not to say we'll always agree."
He is also encouraging his members to raise concerns about proposed changes that may harm patients.
Alberta Health spokesman John Tuckwell said Albertans will soon have an opportunity to express their views to a 16-member minister's health advisory council through a survey on its new website. A survey will be posted on the site by late next week to enable the public to provide input into the committee's work, he said.
But David Eggen of the Friends of Medicare said he has concerns about the effectiveness of that process.
"We don't get to see what the results are, and they are meeting behind closed doors," he said. "They are using the Internet as a firewall to keep information out and to keep information in."
Eggen said Health Minister Ron Liepert has indicated he has no intention of revealing his plans for health reform in advance of the changes.
"Ron Liepert told us ... he wasn't going to reveal the whole picture," Eggen said. "He wasn't going to make the same mistake Ralph Klein did with the "Third Way" and give away all his cards at once. This is their strategy to keep Albertans in the dark."
Eggen says the Friends of Medicare will also hold meetings around the province to give Albertans a forum to express their concerns. The Edmonton meeting is set for Oct. 13 at the Polish Hall.
The NDP has scheduled hearings for Edmonton Oct. 6, Red Deer Oct. 13, Grande Prairie Oct. 14 and Fort McMurray Nov. 9. Meetings have also been planned for Lethbridge and Medicine Hat.
dhenton@thejournal.canwest.com
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
more Fort Saskatchewan
Health-care protestors block downtown street
Hundreds of protestors march to Stelmach's office
Posted By Conal MacMillan / Record Staff
Updated 10 mins ago
Hundreds of protestors block 104th Street in front of Premier Ed Stelmach's riding office Friday afternoon in downtown Fort Saskatchewan. They were protesting changes to the public health-care system.
Hundreds of people protesting health-care changes marched to Premier Ed Stelmach's riding office in Fort Saskatchewan Friday afternoon.
Friends of Medicare, who brought protestors in from Edmonton on six school buses and dropped them off in the Giant Tiger parking lot, organized the protest. A half-hour rally was held near 99th Avenue before the crowd walked up 104th Street to the premier's office chanting a number of slogans, including "
Once they arrived, they overflowed onto the street, blocking it to traffic for about 10 minutes while they chanted some more and waived their protest signs.
Some estimates placed the crowd at between 400 and 500 people.
Stelmach wasn't at the office. The premier was in Vancouver at an Open Skies conference.
Michael Marlowe, 84, was among the protestors. He held a sign that read "Seniors shafted while billions go to corporations" on one side and "Premier Stelmach treat not seniors and mentally ill as 3rd class citizens" on the other.
"They are not listening to the people. They won't even meet with the people," he said. "And we're saying, 'Look, we want medicare the way it was originally brought it and we're prepared to pay for it.'"
Marlowe, a past president of the Alberta Retired Public Employees Society, said the government's changes are forcing seniors into private-owned facilities which some can't afford.
Protestors like Nancy Ridgely came from as far away as Canmore to march to Stelmach's office.
The former Fort resident said she heard about the rally through word of mouth and made sure to attend. She's most upset about changes to the Alberta seniors drug plan that will see her have to pay more for her medications starting next July.
Stelmach later told Sun Media he’s looking to heal, not hurt, the health-care system.
“No one cares more about Alberta’s publicly funded health care system than me,” Stelmach said.
RCMP officers were out to watch the crowds, but no one was arrested. However, a few vehicles were thwarted in their attempt to get down 104th Street while it was blocked.
One nearby downtown shop owner, who has seen her share of protests in front of Stelmach's office, noted that it was the largest she'd ever seen.
Hundreds of protestors march to Stelmach's office
Posted By Conal MacMillan / Record Staff
Updated 10 mins ago
Hundreds of protestors block 104th Street in front of Premier Ed Stelmach's riding office Friday afternoon in downtown Fort Saskatchewan. They were protesting changes to the public health-care system.
Hundreds of people protesting health-care changes marched to Premier Ed Stelmach's riding office in Fort Saskatchewan Friday afternoon.
Friends of Medicare, who brought protestors in from Edmonton on six school buses and dropped them off in the Giant Tiger parking lot, organized the protest. A half-hour rally was held near 99th Avenue before the crowd walked up 104th Street to the premier's office chanting a number of slogans, including "
Once they arrived, they overflowed onto the street, blocking it to traffic for about 10 minutes while they chanted some more and waived their protest signs.
Some estimates placed the crowd at between 400 and 500 people.
Stelmach wasn't at the office. The premier was in Vancouver at an Open Skies conference.
Michael Marlowe, 84, was among the protestors. He held a sign that read "Seniors shafted while billions go to corporations" on one side and "Premier Stelmach treat not seniors and mentally ill as 3rd class citizens" on the other.
"They are not listening to the people. They won't even meet with the people," he said. "And we're saying, 'Look, we want medicare the way it was originally brought it and we're prepared to pay for it.'"
Marlowe, a past president of the Alberta Retired Public Employees Society, said the government's changes are forcing seniors into private-owned facilities which some can't afford.
Protestors like Nancy Ridgely came from as far away as Canmore to march to Stelmach's office.
The former Fort resident said she heard about the rally through word of mouth and made sure to attend. She's most upset about changes to the Alberta seniors drug plan that will see her have to pay more for her medications starting next July.
Stelmach later told Sun Media he’s looking to heal, not hurt, the health-care system.
“No one cares more about Alberta’s publicly funded health care system than me,” Stelmach said.
RCMP officers were out to watch the crowds, but no one was arrested. However, a few vehicles were thwarted in their attempt to get down 104th Street while it was blocked.
One nearby downtown shop owner, who has seen her share of protests in front of Stelmach's office, noted that it was the largest she'd ever seen.
CBC News
premier's office
Last Updated: Friday, September 25, 2009 7:07 PM MT Comments34Recommend18
CBC News
Hundreds of people protested against health-care cuts outside Premier Ed Stelmach's constituency office in Fort Saskatchewan Friday. (CBC)Recently announced cuts to the Alberta health-care system drew hundreds of protesters Friday to a Friends of Medicare rally outside Premier Ed Stelmach's constituency office in Fort Saskatchewan.
People travelled from Edmonton, Red Deer and Hinton to object to what they called the government's dismantling of the public health-care system.
"We came here for a very specific purpose to ask Mr. Stelmach to explain in plain language exactly what his intentions are for public health," David Eggen, executive director of the public health care advocacy group, said after the rally.
After listening to speeches from union leaders, people waved signs and chanted "We want Ed" in front of Stelmach's office. However, Stelmach was in Vancouver Friday for the Open Skies Summit.
In the past couple of months, the province has announced a number of cuts to the health-care system to deal with a $1.3-billion deficit.
People carried signs like this one at the rally in Fort Saskatchewan Friday. (CBC)They include the closure of hundreds of hospital beds, including 300 in Calgary and Edmonton, and the closure of another 246 psychiatric acute-care beds at Alberta Hospital. Patients will be moved to what health officials said are more suitable placements in the community.
In the case of seniors, many will be moved out of hospitals into assisted living facilities, a move critics charge will simply allow the province to download the costs onto individuals.
'I need it. I paid for it'
Anger over cuts and rising costs brought Ruth Melhus to Friday's rally.
"I need it. I paid for it. I thought it would be there," she said of the health-care system.
Melhus worked for the Alberta government for 40 years and now lives in an assisted living facility. Last year, her rent went up by five per cent, but her pension only increased by two per cent.
"I'm starting to worry about the pension. It's not going to be enough. I'm even starting to think I have to die before the pension runs out," she said. "And who wants to think like that?"
Health-care cuts mean nursing graduates will have to look elsewhere for work, one union leader charged at Friday's protest, in reference to a rally Thursday by about 60 fourth-year nursing students at the Alberta legislature.
"We're losing these new graduates which we desperately need in our system and we're losing our investment that we have paid as taxpayers into their education," Bev Dick with the United Nurses of Alberta told people at the rally.
Other provinces and countries will benefit from these Alberta-educated nurses, Dick said.
Last Updated: Friday, September 25, 2009 7:07 PM MT Comments34Recommend18
CBC News
Hundreds of people protested against health-care cuts outside Premier Ed Stelmach's constituency office in Fort Saskatchewan Friday. (CBC)Recently announced cuts to the Alberta health-care system drew hundreds of protesters Friday to a Friends of Medicare rally outside Premier Ed Stelmach's constituency office in Fort Saskatchewan.
People travelled from Edmonton, Red Deer and Hinton to object to what they called the government's dismantling of the public health-care system.
"We came here for a very specific purpose to ask Mr. Stelmach to explain in plain language exactly what his intentions are for public health," David Eggen, executive director of the public health care advocacy group, said after the rally.
After listening to speeches from union leaders, people waved signs and chanted "We want Ed" in front of Stelmach's office. However, Stelmach was in Vancouver Friday for the Open Skies Summit.
In the past couple of months, the province has announced a number of cuts to the health-care system to deal with a $1.3-billion deficit.
People carried signs like this one at the rally in Fort Saskatchewan Friday. (CBC)They include the closure of hundreds of hospital beds, including 300 in Calgary and Edmonton, and the closure of another 246 psychiatric acute-care beds at Alberta Hospital. Patients will be moved to what health officials said are more suitable placements in the community.
In the case of seniors, many will be moved out of hospitals into assisted living facilities, a move critics charge will simply allow the province to download the costs onto individuals.
'I need it. I paid for it'
Anger over cuts and rising costs brought Ruth Melhus to Friday's rally.
"I need it. I paid for it. I thought it would be there," she said of the health-care system.
Melhus worked for the Alberta government for 40 years and now lives in an assisted living facility. Last year, her rent went up by five per cent, but her pension only increased by two per cent.
"I'm starting to worry about the pension. It's not going to be enough. I'm even starting to think I have to die before the pension runs out," she said. "And who wants to think like that?"
Health-care cuts mean nursing graduates will have to look elsewhere for work, one union leader charged at Friday's protest, in reference to a rally Thursday by about 60 fourth-year nursing students at the Alberta legislature.
"We're losing these new graduates which we desperately need in our system and we're losing our investment that we have paid as taxpayers into their education," Bev Dick with the United Nurses of Alberta told people at the rally.
Other provinces and countries will benefit from these Alberta-educated nurses, Dick said.
Fort Saskatchewan
'I'm starting to get angry': Eggen
Friends of Medicare takes its protest over mental-health cuts to premier's Ft. Sask. office
By Jodie Sinnema, Edmonton JournalSeptember 26, 2009
Isaac McNeill believes his family wouldn't exist without help from Alberta Hospital.
McNeill has bipolar disorder that is managed well with medication and an excellent doctor. But his father and grandmother each spent time getting well in one of the hospital's mental-health beds.
So with the projected closure of 246 mental-health beds at that hospital, McNeill and his wife and three kids joined hundreds of others to protest radical changes the government is making to Alberta's health system. "If it wasn't for Alberta Hospital, my family wouldn't be the way it is," said McNeill, carrying four-year-old daughter Sydney on his shoulders while his wife, Jennifer, kept an eye on two-year-old Jacob and five-month-old Ethan. "There's no way that this government should be cutting money from situations like that."
Between 400 and 500 gathered for a noon-hour rally organized outside Premier Ed Stelmach's constituency office in Fort Saskatchewan.
Many expressed concerns about 300 hospital-bed closures expected in Edmonton and Calgary, a nursing shortage the health region denies, and the unclear plans the province has for long-term care.
"Hospital care BYOB:Buy your own bed," read one protester's sign.
"Put Duckett in the bucket," read another, referring to Alberta Health Services CEO Stephen Duckett, who has become the public face of bed closures, budget deficits and cuts while Health Minister Ron Liepert has remained in the background.
"I'm starting to get angry," said David Eggen, executive director of Friends of Medicare, whose organization used six yellow school buses to take people to the rally. Stelmach was not there and his office door remained closed.
Membership in Friends of Medicare has quadrupled over the last year to just under 5,000 people, Eggen said. "It's time to start fighting back."
He said the government's changes to the health system are coming fast and furious, each one significant, each one reducing the scope of what's covered under public health care. Yet the details are murky, Eggen said. A government-commissioned report was leaked earlier this week that suggested the government is targeting a "significant reduction" of long-term care beds, but neither Stelmach nor Duckett would say how many beds may close.
Michael Marlowe, a healthy 84-year-old, said if people don't speak out or join rallies like the one on Friday, the government will assume people are satisfied with what it's doing.
"I'm very concerned our seniors are being shafted," Marlowe said.
"I just want to let Mr. Stelmach know we are not sheep, we will protest," said Sharon MacLean, a personal care aide who has worked in long-term-care facilities, where, she said, "the prices keep going up and the care keeps going down." She said health-care workers try to make such places feel homelike for seniors. "There's a lot of burnout," MacLean said.
Margaret Heil, who is a clerical worker at the Edmonton General Hospital, said some wards with 72 seniors are left at night with only two workers.
"They want to give people on those units the best quality of life they can, but they're spread so thin," Heil said.
Two previous Friends of Medicare rallies were held in the spring outside the offices of Health Minister Ron Liepert and the minister's parliamentary assistant Raj Sherman. A third rally was held in Fort McMurray after MLA Guy Boutilier was kicked out of the Tory caucus for critiques that his government had failed to fulfil its promise to build a long-term-care facility in the northern city.
Another rally is scheduled in October outside the Red Deer office of Seniors Minister Mary Anne Jablonski.
jsinnema@thejournal.canwest.com
Friends of Medicare takes its protest over mental-health cuts to premier's Ft. Sask. office
By Jodie Sinnema, Edmonton JournalSeptember 26, 2009
Isaac McNeill believes his family wouldn't exist without help from Alberta Hospital.
McNeill has bipolar disorder that is managed well with medication and an excellent doctor. But his father and grandmother each spent time getting well in one of the hospital's mental-health beds.
So with the projected closure of 246 mental-health beds at that hospital, McNeill and his wife and three kids joined hundreds of others to protest radical changes the government is making to Alberta's health system. "If it wasn't for Alberta Hospital, my family wouldn't be the way it is," said McNeill, carrying four-year-old daughter Sydney on his shoulders while his wife, Jennifer, kept an eye on two-year-old Jacob and five-month-old Ethan. "There's no way that this government should be cutting money from situations like that."
Between 400 and 500 gathered for a noon-hour rally organized outside Premier Ed Stelmach's constituency office in Fort Saskatchewan.
Many expressed concerns about 300 hospital-bed closures expected in Edmonton and Calgary, a nursing shortage the health region denies, and the unclear plans the province has for long-term care.
"Hospital care BYOB:Buy your own bed," read one protester's sign.
"Put Duckett in the bucket," read another, referring to Alberta Health Services CEO Stephen Duckett, who has become the public face of bed closures, budget deficits and cuts while Health Minister Ron Liepert has remained in the background.
"I'm starting to get angry," said David Eggen, executive director of Friends of Medicare, whose organization used six yellow school buses to take people to the rally. Stelmach was not there and his office door remained closed.
Membership in Friends of Medicare has quadrupled over the last year to just under 5,000 people, Eggen said. "It's time to start fighting back."
He said the government's changes to the health system are coming fast and furious, each one significant, each one reducing the scope of what's covered under public health care. Yet the details are murky, Eggen said. A government-commissioned report was leaked earlier this week that suggested the government is targeting a "significant reduction" of long-term care beds, but neither Stelmach nor Duckett would say how many beds may close.
Michael Marlowe, a healthy 84-year-old, said if people don't speak out or join rallies like the one on Friday, the government will assume people are satisfied with what it's doing.
"I'm very concerned our seniors are being shafted," Marlowe said.
"I just want to let Mr. Stelmach know we are not sheep, we will protest," said Sharon MacLean, a personal care aide who has worked in long-term-care facilities, where, she said, "the prices keep going up and the care keeps going down." She said health-care workers try to make such places feel homelike for seniors. "There's a lot of burnout," MacLean said.
Margaret Heil, who is a clerical worker at the Edmonton General Hospital, said some wards with 72 seniors are left at night with only two workers.
"They want to give people on those units the best quality of life they can, but they're spread so thin," Heil said.
Two previous Friends of Medicare rallies were held in the spring outside the offices of Health Minister Ron Liepert and the minister's parliamentary assistant Raj Sherman. A third rally was held in Fort McMurray after MLA Guy Boutilier was kicked out of the Tory caucus for critiques that his government had failed to fulfil its promise to build a long-term-care facility in the northern city.
Another rally is scheduled in October outside the Red Deer office of Seniors Minister Mary Anne Jablonski.
jsinnema@thejournal.canwest.com
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Prince Albert Paper
Alberta nursing students say Saskatchewan their best option Alberta RN students protest at legislature about shortage of nursing jobsEDMONTONBY JIM MACDONALD The Canadian Press
Alberta nursing students who are preparing to graduate with very unhealthy job prospects showed their frustration Thursday by holding a protest rally in front of the legislature.
Most of the 60 protesters were fourth-year registered nursing students who said right now their best chance of getting a job will be in neighbouring Saskatchewan or elsewhere in Canada.
“The public has a right to know that they're funding nurses to work elsewhere,” said Quinn Grundy, a student who helped organize the rally.
“Saskatchewan has signing bonuses for nurses, B.C. is hiring and the territories are actively recruiting.”
The College & Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta estimates the province is short up to 1,300 RNs. The United Nurses of Alberta says nursing jobs are being frozen or cut by the government to meet new budget targets.
More than 1,000 graduate nurses will likely end up leaving Alberta because of the lack of job openings in the province, Grundy said.
Another student preparing to graduate said the protest was held to warn Albertans that not hiring more nurses will compromise patient care.
“It is a recession and we understand that everyone is at risk of losing their jobs, but it's really impacting the patients in the hospital right now and that's the frustrating part,” said Katherine, who did not give her last name.
“We think everyone should get the quality of care they deserve and right now it's in jeopardy.”
There was no immediate comment from Health Minister Ron Liepert's office or from Alberta Health Services, which operates the province's health system.
The students say they're speaking out partly because nurses themselves are being muzzled by a code of conduct imposed by Alberta Health Services.
The protesters also took aim at Alberta's strategy to use more licensed practical nurses to save money.
The students say using people with less education reduces the quality of patient care and is not cost-effective in the long term.
“We're not looking to step on LPN's, we operate as a team,” said Grundy. “But there is international research done on staff mix ratios which shows that (using more) unregulated care providers has effects on mortality, morbidity, complications and length of stay (in hospital).”
David Eggen, with the group Friends of Medicare, said the nursing students have a right to be angry.
“The student nurses spent a long time training for positions that seemed to be iron clad,” said Eggen. “Now suddenly they're being left out to dry.”
Aaron, another fourth-year student, said this is not a time for Alberta to be shunning nursing graduates given the possibility of a swine flu pandemic.
Alberta nursing students who are preparing to graduate with very unhealthy job prospects showed their frustration Thursday by holding a protest rally in front of the legislature.
Most of the 60 protesters were fourth-year registered nursing students who said right now their best chance of getting a job will be in neighbouring Saskatchewan or elsewhere in Canada.
“The public has a right to know that they're funding nurses to work elsewhere,” said Quinn Grundy, a student who helped organize the rally.
“Saskatchewan has signing bonuses for nurses, B.C. is hiring and the territories are actively recruiting.”
The College & Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta estimates the province is short up to 1,300 RNs. The United Nurses of Alberta says nursing jobs are being frozen or cut by the government to meet new budget targets.
More than 1,000 graduate nurses will likely end up leaving Alberta because of the lack of job openings in the province, Grundy said.
Another student preparing to graduate said the protest was held to warn Albertans that not hiring more nurses will compromise patient care.
“It is a recession and we understand that everyone is at risk of losing their jobs, but it's really impacting the patients in the hospital right now and that's the frustrating part,” said Katherine, who did not give her last name.
“We think everyone should get the quality of care they deserve and right now it's in jeopardy.”
There was no immediate comment from Health Minister Ron Liepert's office or from Alberta Health Services, which operates the province's health system.
The students say they're speaking out partly because nurses themselves are being muzzled by a code of conduct imposed by Alberta Health Services.
The protesters also took aim at Alberta's strategy to use more licensed practical nurses to save money.
The students say using people with less education reduces the quality of patient care and is not cost-effective in the long term.
“We're not looking to step on LPN's, we operate as a team,” said Grundy. “But there is international research done on staff mix ratios which shows that (using more) unregulated care providers has effects on mortality, morbidity, complications and length of stay (in hospital).”
David Eggen, with the group Friends of Medicare, said the nursing students have a right to be angry.
“The student nurses spent a long time training for positions that seemed to be iron clad,” said Eggen. “Now suddenly they're being left out to dry.”
Aaron, another fourth-year student, said this is not a time for Alberta to be shunning nursing graduates given the possibility of a swine flu pandemic.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Red Deer
AUPE protests bed cutsBy Susan Zielinski - Red Deer AdvocatePublished: September 18, 2009
Central Albertan’s were urged to join in the fight against hospital bed closures happening elsewhere in Alberta since local hospitals could be next on Alberta Health Services’ hit-list.
“People in Red Deer and area shouldn’t stick their head in the sand and think that they dodged this bullet,” said David Eggen, executive director of Friends Of Medicare before he called on drivers to “honk for health care” at a protest along 49th Avenue near the Red Deer Lodge on Thursday afternoon.
Many drivers hit their horns and waived as they passed about 85 Alberta Union of Provincial Employee members wearing placards denouncing Alberta Health Services’ plan to close 350 acute care hospital beds and 246 psychiatric beds over three years at facilities in Calgary and Edmonton.
On Wednesday, AHS announced that a deal was made with 15 private operators to create about 775 new “community care spaces” for hospital patients, like seniors, who would be more appropriately served in supportive living and long-term care facilities.
A private operator is to open 150 community beds next May for some of the most serious mental patients.
“What we saw yesterday is the beginning of a diabolical plan, quite frankly, to take money from public health care facilities and give it to private contractors to build private facilities in the community,” Eggen said.
“We have a big problem with that and I think that the people who actually deliver health care have a big problem with that too so we’re here in support.”
The AUPE launched a Save Alberta Hospital campaign when government said 150 beds would close at province’s largest mental-health facility. On Wednesday that number increased to 246.
“Pulling a facility of that size will affect everyone in the province,” said AUPE president Doug Knight about the hospital that serves the entire province and Northern Canada.
“The safety of the public and the clients will be in jeopardy if these people fall though the cracks end up on the streets, definitely.”
And Knight said the serious lack of acute care beds will only get worse.
“We’re going to have a lot of beds that are needed by active care patients. They are laying out in the hallway now or on waiting lists for surgery or bunked three to a room with no call bells,” said the president of the union representing 36,000 public, private and not-for-profit health care workers.
Minister of Seniors and Community Supports Mary Anne Jablonski, said most of the 350 acute beds will be held for a health crisis like a pandemic, but 40 beds in Calgary will be used for emergency care and 20 beds in Edmonton.
The public understands seniors who don’t need medical care in hospital will be better served in community care. Psychiatric community care, with proper security for the safety of both patients and the community, will also focus on the patient, she said.
“We’re working the best we can to ensure people receive the care they need in the right places,” Jablonski said.
Eggen said rural communities have avoided cuts so far because they “pushed back” when ambulance service to hospitals was threatened earlier this year.
“I think people speaking out against cuts to public health care does have an effect.
“We will resist (bed closures) in Edmonton and Calgary and be prepared to do so here in rural Alberta too.”
szielinski@reddeeradvocate.com
Central Albertan’s were urged to join in the fight against hospital bed closures happening elsewhere in Alberta since local hospitals could be next on Alberta Health Services’ hit-list.
“People in Red Deer and area shouldn’t stick their head in the sand and think that they dodged this bullet,” said David Eggen, executive director of Friends Of Medicare before he called on drivers to “honk for health care” at a protest along 49th Avenue near the Red Deer Lodge on Thursday afternoon.
Many drivers hit their horns and waived as they passed about 85 Alberta Union of Provincial Employee members wearing placards denouncing Alberta Health Services’ plan to close 350 acute care hospital beds and 246 psychiatric beds over three years at facilities in Calgary and Edmonton.
On Wednesday, AHS announced that a deal was made with 15 private operators to create about 775 new “community care spaces” for hospital patients, like seniors, who would be more appropriately served in supportive living and long-term care facilities.
A private operator is to open 150 community beds next May for some of the most serious mental patients.
“What we saw yesterday is the beginning of a diabolical plan, quite frankly, to take money from public health care facilities and give it to private contractors to build private facilities in the community,” Eggen said.
“We have a big problem with that and I think that the people who actually deliver health care have a big problem with that too so we’re here in support.”
The AUPE launched a Save Alberta Hospital campaign when government said 150 beds would close at province’s largest mental-health facility. On Wednesday that number increased to 246.
“Pulling a facility of that size will affect everyone in the province,” said AUPE president Doug Knight about the hospital that serves the entire province and Northern Canada.
“The safety of the public and the clients will be in jeopardy if these people fall though the cracks end up on the streets, definitely.”
And Knight said the serious lack of acute care beds will only get worse.
“We’re going to have a lot of beds that are needed by active care patients. They are laying out in the hallway now or on waiting lists for surgery or bunked three to a room with no call bells,” said the president of the union representing 36,000 public, private and not-for-profit health care workers.
Minister of Seniors and Community Supports Mary Anne Jablonski, said most of the 350 acute beds will be held for a health crisis like a pandemic, but 40 beds in Calgary will be used for emergency care and 20 beds in Edmonton.
The public understands seniors who don’t need medical care in hospital will be better served in community care. Psychiatric community care, with proper security for the safety of both patients and the community, will also focus on the patient, she said.
“We’re working the best we can to ensure people receive the care they need in the right places,” Jablonski said.
Eggen said rural communities have avoided cuts so far because they “pushed back” when ambulance service to hospitals was threatened earlier this year.
“I think people speaking out against cuts to public health care does have an effect.
“We will resist (bed closures) in Edmonton and Calgary and be prepared to do so here in rural Alberta too.”
szielinski@reddeeradvocate.com
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Mr. Duckett has won us all over
Bed closures will save $50M, says Alberta superboard
By Jodie Sinnema, edmontonjournal.comSeptember 17, 2009 6:13 AMComments (88)
EDMONTON -
Many patients who move out of the approximately Alberta 300 hospital beds slated for closure over the next three years will face higher costs and reduced care as they move into 775 new community spaces, critics say.
Stephen Duckett, CEO of Alberta Health Services, said Wednesday patients who no longer need acute care will be better off away from the constant lights and noise of hospitals.
The new places--the majority of which are assisted-living beds with associated costs--will have staff trained to foster independence, he said.
Critics say the move hoists costs onto families and will result in worse care for people who are getting older and sicker.
"The plan for this government is to move critically ill seniors from acute-care hospital beds into primarily facilities which are not regulated in the same way, which are not inspected the same way, which are not governed the same way and which do not provide the same level of care," NDP MLA Rachel Notley said.
She made her comment after Alberta Health Services released its plan to close 140 Edmonton-area hospital beds in three years and another 150 in Calgary.
Patients in Edmonton will be moved into 420 new community beds planned for the capital region. Many will be operated by private companies under contract to the health superboard.
"The only thing that those facilities provide more of is bills for the people who live in them," Notley said, adding that assisted-living facilities don't have the same staff-patient ratios required in publicly funded long-term care facilities.
Of those beds, 150 are being created in Covenant Health's Villa Caritas to replace some of the 246 mental health beds to close at Alberta Hospital. Duckett said other mental health-beds are being created elsewhere to pick up the need, including 45 slated for the Royal Alexandra and University hospitals, among others.
Another 60 general hospital beds --20 in Edmonton, 40 in Calgary --will also empty as patients not in acute care move out. The beds will be saved for emergency cases, such as those that would be needed in a flu pandemic.
"If we need those beds to provide acute care a week or six months or a year from now, we will use them," Duckett said. "What I can say is we need new community capacity right now."
The bed closures and reduced staff will save the health region $35 million to $50 million a year, with$26 million funnelled to create the community programs, $13 million each in Edmonton and Calgary.
It costs $13,000 to $32,000 a year to house someone in a lodge or in supportive programs, compared to $57,000 a year for a nursing-home bed and $150,000 to $200,000 to keep that patient in a hospital.
Dr. Chip Doig, president-elect of the Alberta Medical Association, said he wished Alberta Health Services consulted with doctors and medical experts before coming up with the plan. He doesn't know if the extra community spaces will free up enough hospital beds to relieve the crunch in emergencies and offset bed closures.
"In my practical experience, that math doesn't hold," Doig said, especially when Alberta's two biggest cities provide specialized health care to people across the province. "Closing beds in Calgary and Edmonton may have a significant impact in all the zones across the province."
"There is a big shift to privatization here," Liberal MLA Kevin Taft said. "They are downloading the cost of care to individuals in order to balance a budget that they so badly mismanaged."
David Eggen, with Friends of Medicare, agreed, saying the health system is funnelling public money -- "a gift," Eggen said--to support private entrepreneurs.
BY THE NUMBERS
THE EDMONTON AREA SITUATION HOSPITALS - 386 hospital bed closures over the next three years. - That includes: - 246 beds at Alberta Hospital - 30 at the Royal Alexandra Hospital - 30 at University Hospital - 30 between the Misericordia and - 50 more between the hospitals in - Another 40 beds will also be - 420 community spaces will be open - That includes: - 150 mental-health beds at Villa Caritas, which was originally meant for patients from the Edmonton General Hospital who will now stay put. Construction is slated to finish next May. Some patient beds will be funded in the same way as public hospital beds. Others will be designated assisted living
beds, where some health services are publicly covered and others require patients to cover some costs.
jsinnema@thejournal.canwest.com
By Jodie Sinnema, edmontonjournal.comSeptember 17, 2009 6:13 AMComments (88)
EDMONTON -
Many patients who move out of the approximately Alberta 300 hospital beds slated for closure over the next three years will face higher costs and reduced care as they move into 775 new community spaces, critics say.
Stephen Duckett, CEO of Alberta Health Services, said Wednesday patients who no longer need acute care will be better off away from the constant lights and noise of hospitals.
The new places--the majority of which are assisted-living beds with associated costs--will have staff trained to foster independence, he said.
Critics say the move hoists costs onto families and will result in worse care for people who are getting older and sicker.
"The plan for this government is to move critically ill seniors from acute-care hospital beds into primarily facilities which are not regulated in the same way, which are not inspected the same way, which are not governed the same way and which do not provide the same level of care," NDP MLA Rachel Notley said.
She made her comment after Alberta Health Services released its plan to close 140 Edmonton-area hospital beds in three years and another 150 in Calgary.
Patients in Edmonton will be moved into 420 new community beds planned for the capital region. Many will be operated by private companies under contract to the health superboard.
"The only thing that those facilities provide more of is bills for the people who live in them," Notley said, adding that assisted-living facilities don't have the same staff-patient ratios required in publicly funded long-term care facilities.
Of those beds, 150 are being created in Covenant Health's Villa Caritas to replace some of the 246 mental health beds to close at Alberta Hospital. Duckett said other mental health-beds are being created elsewhere to pick up the need, including 45 slated for the Royal Alexandra and University hospitals, among others.
Another 60 general hospital beds --20 in Edmonton, 40 in Calgary --will also empty as patients not in acute care move out. The beds will be saved for emergency cases, such as those that would be needed in a flu pandemic.
"If we need those beds to provide acute care a week or six months or a year from now, we will use them," Duckett said. "What I can say is we need new community capacity right now."
The bed closures and reduced staff will save the health region $35 million to $50 million a year, with$26 million funnelled to create the community programs, $13 million each in Edmonton and Calgary.
It costs $13,000 to $32,000 a year to house someone in a lodge or in supportive programs, compared to $57,000 a year for a nursing-home bed and $150,000 to $200,000 to keep that patient in a hospital.
Dr. Chip Doig, president-elect of the Alberta Medical Association, said he wished Alberta Health Services consulted with doctors and medical experts before coming up with the plan. He doesn't know if the extra community spaces will free up enough hospital beds to relieve the crunch in emergencies and offset bed closures.
"In my practical experience, that math doesn't hold," Doig said, especially when Alberta's two biggest cities provide specialized health care to people across the province. "Closing beds in Calgary and Edmonton may have a significant impact in all the zones across the province."
"There is a big shift to privatization here," Liberal MLA Kevin Taft said. "They are downloading the cost of care to individuals in order to balance a budget that they so badly mismanaged."
David Eggen, with Friends of Medicare, agreed, saying the health system is funnelling public money -- "a gift," Eggen said--to support private entrepreneurs.
BY THE NUMBERS
THE EDMONTON AREA SITUATION HOSPITALS - 386 hospital bed closures over the next three years. - That includes: - 246 beds at Alberta Hospital - 30 at the Royal Alexandra Hospital - 30 at University Hospital - 30 between the Misericordia and - 50 more between the hospitals in - Another 40 beds will also be - 420 community spaces will be open - That includes: - 150 mental-health beds at Villa Caritas, which was originally meant for patients from the Edmonton General Hospital who will now stay put. Construction is slated to finish next May. Some patient beds will be funded in the same way as public hospital beds. Others will be designated assisted living
beds, where some health services are publicly covered and others require patients to cover some costs.
jsinnema@thejournal.canwest.com
CEo's bonus linked to moving patients
New policy should help Duckett hit target
By Jodie Sinnema, Edmonton JournalSeptember 17, 2009
Part of a potential $144,000 annual bonus to be awarded to the boss of Alberta's health superboard is directly linked to how many patients he can move out of hospital beds and into the community.
Stephen Duckett, CEO of Alberta Health Services, must reduce the number of patients in hospitals who don't need acute-care beds to 550 in the next year from the current 700 and to 350 by 2011-12.
His announcement Wednesday to create 800 new community-care options in the next three years, such as more home-care and assisted-living spaces, is part of a plan that could help him reach his bonus goal.
Duckett earns $575,000 annually. He is eligible for an additional 25 per cent of the salary as a bonus, as long as he reaches this provincewide target and others, including:
-Decreasing emergency waiting times to 14 hours from 16 hours in one year for patients who need a hospital bed. The waiting time should be halved to eight hours in three years.
-Decreasing emergency waiting times to five hours from 5.6 hours for uncomplicated cases in 2009-10, and to four hours by 2011-12.
-Reducing waits for hip replacement surgery to 30 weeks from 33 weeks over the next fiscal year, and to 26 weeks over three years.
-Increasing the flu immunization rates for seniors to 63 per cent from 58 per cent over one year, and to 75 per cent over three years.
While 40 per cent of his bonus is based on his ability to increase patient access in the face of bed closures and shrinking work staff, 30 per cent rides on his ability to cut costs to fix the health region's $1-billion deficit. Another 30 per cent is based on improving quality.
As waiting-time targets are achieved, new targets -- such as waits for MRIs or knee replacements --could be linked to Duckett's bonus in the future.
David Eggen, executive director of Friends of Medicare, said bonuses have no place in the public sector.
"I don't understand how doing your job competently should require a bonus," Eggen said. "Most Albertans have to meet their job requirements to get their basic pay."
Duckett said: "We need to say to Albertans where we stand, what we're trying to do and how we're progressing. And sometimes we're not progressing as well as we ought. Sometimes we are, but people don't know that, so we just feel it's in everybody's interest if we're up front."
To that end, Duckett said current waiting times for specific procedures at many hospitals will be posted online later this week, with updates coming every fiscal quarter.
Ideally, every hospital would meet the same waiting time targets, but Duckett said that isn't what happens. Some hospitals, for instance, may serve a population with more complex health problems that drive up the waiting times. Hospital budgets won't be based on achieving targets for waiting timess, Duckett said.
The plan is part of a broader move to closely track waiting times.
Later this fall, the province and Alberta Health Services will launch a new waiting list registry that will track surgery waiting times, birth and mortality rates, how many people have family doctors, immunization rates and hospitalizations due to injuries, among others.
jsinnema@thejournal.canwest.com
New policy should help Duckett hit target
By Jodie Sinnema, Edmonton JournalSeptember 17, 2009
Part of a potential $144,000 annual bonus to be awarded to the boss of Alberta's health superboard is directly linked to how many patients he can move out of hospital beds and into the community.
Stephen Duckett, CEO of Alberta Health Services, must reduce the number of patients in hospitals who don't need acute-care beds to 550 in the next year from the current 700 and to 350 by 2011-12.
His announcement Wednesday to create 800 new community-care options in the next three years, such as more home-care and assisted-living spaces, is part of a plan that could help him reach his bonus goal.
Duckett earns $575,000 annually. He is eligible for an additional 25 per cent of the salary as a bonus, as long as he reaches this provincewide target and others, including:
-Decreasing emergency waiting times to 14 hours from 16 hours in one year for patients who need a hospital bed. The waiting time should be halved to eight hours in three years.
-Decreasing emergency waiting times to five hours from 5.6 hours for uncomplicated cases in 2009-10, and to four hours by 2011-12.
-Reducing waits for hip replacement surgery to 30 weeks from 33 weeks over the next fiscal year, and to 26 weeks over three years.
-Increasing the flu immunization rates for seniors to 63 per cent from 58 per cent over one year, and to 75 per cent over three years.
While 40 per cent of his bonus is based on his ability to increase patient access in the face of bed closures and shrinking work staff, 30 per cent rides on his ability to cut costs to fix the health region's $1-billion deficit. Another 30 per cent is based on improving quality.
As waiting-time targets are achieved, new targets -- such as waits for MRIs or knee replacements --could be linked to Duckett's bonus in the future.
David Eggen, executive director of Friends of Medicare, said bonuses have no place in the public sector.
"I don't understand how doing your job competently should require a bonus," Eggen said. "Most Albertans have to meet their job requirements to get their basic pay."
Duckett said: "We need to say to Albertans where we stand, what we're trying to do and how we're progressing. And sometimes we're not progressing as well as we ought. Sometimes we are, but people don't know that, so we just feel it's in everybody's interest if we're up front."
To that end, Duckett said current waiting times for specific procedures at many hospitals will be posted online later this week, with updates coming every fiscal quarter.
Ideally, every hospital would meet the same waiting time targets, but Duckett said that isn't what happens. Some hospitals, for instance, may serve a population with more complex health problems that drive up the waiting times. Hospital budgets won't be based on achieving targets for waiting timess, Duckett said.
The plan is part of a broader move to closely track waiting times.
Later this fall, the province and Alberta Health Services will launch a new waiting list registry that will track surgery waiting times, birth and mortality rates, how many people have family doctors, immunization rates and hospitalizations due to injuries, among others.
jsinnema@thejournal.canwest.com
The fix is in: close hospitals, give money to private companies
Alberta Health Services' head honcho is defending a decision to close scores of hospital beds saying many are being occupied by people who don't want to be in them and should be treated elsewhere.
AHS detailed plans yesterday to close up to 300 hospital beds in Calgary and Edmonton as it creates some 800 new community living spaces.
"These people are in our acute-care beds because they can't get access to a community facility," AHS CEO Stephen Duckett said.
"Every day there are 300 to 400 people in our hospitals who don't need to be there."
"The care they're getting now in an acute-care facility is not the care they need. It's noisy, light ... The care they'll be going to is more homey," said Duckett, who insists he's heard the complaints first-hand from people stuck in hospital rooms.
The health services czar said that despite mothballing hospital beds, roughly 60 will be set aside in Calgary and Edmonton to take pressure off emergency rooms.
The move, to be undertaken over three years, is expected to save about $50 million because acute-care beds are far more expensive to operate than nursing-home-style ones, Duckett said.
He defended the plan as a much-needed, common-sense approach to curing the ills of the system.
"This is not pie-in-the-sky," he said.
No layoffs will be implemented for now until AHS assesses interest in its previously announced voluntary retirement offer.
But Duckett's prescription for the system is a hard pill to swallow for his critics.
"This is effectively like closing the Grey Nuns hospital (which has 267 beds)," said Liberal health critic, MLA Kevin Taft.
"This is the equivalent of losing that many acute-care beds."
Taft claimed the moves are being made to save money in light of the province's $6.9-billion budget deficit.
That deficit includes the AHS budget that's bleeding $1.3 billion in red ink.
"What Alberta Health Services is doing is giving with one hand and taking with another," he said.
Friends of Medicare says the plan is flawed and undermines public health care.
"What we've seen here today ... is a shell game, moving funds from public hospitals to private contractors in the community," said its executive director David Eggen.
"This is an attempt to hijack public health care."
That was echoed by NDP opposition house leader, MLA Rachel Notley.
"The plan is to move critically ill seniors -- into facilities that are not regulated or governed the same way as hospitals," Notley said.
Both she and Eggen said the moves are a major retooling of health care in Alberta and called for Premier Ed Stelmach to halt the plan.
KERRY.DIOTTE@SUNMEDIA.CA
AHS detailed plans yesterday to close up to 300 hospital beds in Calgary and Edmonton as it creates some 800 new community living spaces.
"These people are in our acute-care beds because they can't get access to a community facility," AHS CEO Stephen Duckett said.
"Every day there are 300 to 400 people in our hospitals who don't need to be there."
"The care they're getting now in an acute-care facility is not the care they need. It's noisy, light ... The care they'll be going to is more homey," said Duckett, who insists he's heard the complaints first-hand from people stuck in hospital rooms.
The health services czar said that despite mothballing hospital beds, roughly 60 will be set aside in Calgary and Edmonton to take pressure off emergency rooms.
The move, to be undertaken over three years, is expected to save about $50 million because acute-care beds are far more expensive to operate than nursing-home-style ones, Duckett said.
He defended the plan as a much-needed, common-sense approach to curing the ills of the system.
"This is not pie-in-the-sky," he said.
No layoffs will be implemented for now until AHS assesses interest in its previously announced voluntary retirement offer.
But Duckett's prescription for the system is a hard pill to swallow for his critics.
"This is effectively like closing the Grey Nuns hospital (which has 267 beds)," said Liberal health critic, MLA Kevin Taft.
"This is the equivalent of losing that many acute-care beds."
Taft claimed the moves are being made to save money in light of the province's $6.9-billion budget deficit.
That deficit includes the AHS budget that's bleeding $1.3 billion in red ink.
"What Alberta Health Services is doing is giving with one hand and taking with another," he said.
Friends of Medicare says the plan is flawed and undermines public health care.
"What we've seen here today ... is a shell game, moving funds from public hospitals to private contractors in the community," said its executive director David Eggen.
"This is an attempt to hijack public health care."
That was echoed by NDP opposition house leader, MLA Rachel Notley.
"The plan is to move critically ill seniors -- into facilities that are not regulated or governed the same way as hospitals," Notley said.
Both she and Eggen said the moves are a major retooling of health care in Alberta and called for Premier Ed Stelmach to halt the plan.
KERRY.DIOTTE@SUNMEDIA.CA
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
"You get it?" Mr. Stelmach?
Hundreds of Alberta hospital beds to close
Last Updated: Wednesday, September 16, 2009 2:55 PM MT Comments55Recommend27
CBC News
Alberta Health Services CEO and president Stephen Duckett speaks to reporters Wednesday in Edmonton. (CBC)
Alberta will move hundreds of hospital patients to newly created community-based spaces over the next three years, the provincial health authority confirmed Wednesday.
Alberta Health Services told union representatives on Tuesday that 350 hospital beds in Calgary and Edmonton will be closed and patients moved to 775 community-based spaces.
The province has now confirmed the breakdown of bed closures in the two cities — 160 in Edmonton and 190 in Calgary. Of those beds, 20 in Edmonton and 40 in Calgary will be kept open this year to help with what officials called "emergency room pressures."
The government also revealed that 246 beds will be closed at Alberta Hospital over the next three years.
More than 100 patients — mostly elderly people with dementia or mental illnesses — will be moved to 150 beds set aside at Villa Caritas, the Covenant Health-operated facility in west Edmonton that will open next year.
The plan will save the province an estimated $51.5 million by 2012. All hospital beds will be staffed until the community spaces are created.
The patients in the 350 beds destined for closure will be better cared for outside the hospital, Stephen Duckett, the president and CEO of Alberta Health Services, told reporters at a news conference.
"These people that we're talking about are people who are in our acute-care beds because — and only because — they can't get access to a community-care facility," he said. "They don't need acute care anymore. What they need is continuing care. Care in a nursing home or a designated assisted-living facility."
Alberta Health Services is trying to reduce a deficit that sat at $1.3 billion at the beginning of the fiscal year.
It costs about $57,000 a year to keep a patient in a nursing home and between $150,000 and $200,000 a year to keep one in an acute-care bed, Duckett said.
While word of the bed closures raised speculation about job losses, Duckett said such talk is premature.
"We are not going to consider layoffs until we work through the vacancy management program and the early retirement programs which are being negotiated with our unions," he said.
Bed cuts equivalent of closing a hospital, Liberal says
The announcement brought critical responses from opposition politicians.
"Moving long-term care patients out of an acute-care facility into an appropriate facility is a good idea," said Liberal MLA Kevin Taft. "Closing the beds that that frees up in acute-care hospitals is bad idea."
Taft said the bed closures were the equivalent of closing the Grey Nuns Hospital in Edmonton, which has just over 300 beds.
The plan will diminish the care provided to Alberta seniors, NDP MLA Rachel Notley said.
"The plan for this government is to move critically ill seniors from acute-care hospital beds into, primarily, facilities which are not regulated the same way, which are not inspected the same way, which are not governed the same way and which do not provide the same level of care," she said.
"The only thing that those facilities provide more of is bills. Bills for the people who live in them."
Hospital costs are covered by medicare, but patients in assisted living homes and nursing homes are expected to pay some of their costs.
David Eggen, executive director of public health care advocacy group Friends of Medicare, called the plan a "shell game."
"Clearly this is an attempt to hijack public health care by moving funds and beds out of hospitals and over to private contractors across the province," he said.
There is nothing wrong with moving people who shouldn't be in a hospital bed, but they should be placed in publicly-funded long-term care facilities instead, Eggen said.
Last Updated: Wednesday, September 16, 2009 2:55 PM MT Comments55Recommend27
CBC News
Alberta Health Services CEO and president Stephen Duckett speaks to reporters Wednesday in Edmonton. (CBC)
Alberta will move hundreds of hospital patients to newly created community-based spaces over the next three years, the provincial health authority confirmed Wednesday.
Alberta Health Services told union representatives on Tuesday that 350 hospital beds in Calgary and Edmonton will be closed and patients moved to 775 community-based spaces.
The province has now confirmed the breakdown of bed closures in the two cities — 160 in Edmonton and 190 in Calgary. Of those beds, 20 in Edmonton and 40 in Calgary will be kept open this year to help with what officials called "emergency room pressures."
The government also revealed that 246 beds will be closed at Alberta Hospital over the next three years.
More than 100 patients — mostly elderly people with dementia or mental illnesses — will be moved to 150 beds set aside at Villa Caritas, the Covenant Health-operated facility in west Edmonton that will open next year.
The plan will save the province an estimated $51.5 million by 2012. All hospital beds will be staffed until the community spaces are created.
The patients in the 350 beds destined for closure will be better cared for outside the hospital, Stephen Duckett, the president and CEO of Alberta Health Services, told reporters at a news conference.
"These people that we're talking about are people who are in our acute-care beds because — and only because — they can't get access to a community-care facility," he said. "They don't need acute care anymore. What they need is continuing care. Care in a nursing home or a designated assisted-living facility."
Alberta Health Services is trying to reduce a deficit that sat at $1.3 billion at the beginning of the fiscal year.
It costs about $57,000 a year to keep a patient in a nursing home and between $150,000 and $200,000 a year to keep one in an acute-care bed, Duckett said.
While word of the bed closures raised speculation about job losses, Duckett said such talk is premature.
"We are not going to consider layoffs until we work through the vacancy management program and the early retirement programs which are being negotiated with our unions," he said.
Bed cuts equivalent of closing a hospital, Liberal says
The announcement brought critical responses from opposition politicians.
"Moving long-term care patients out of an acute-care facility into an appropriate facility is a good idea," said Liberal MLA Kevin Taft. "Closing the beds that that frees up in acute-care hospitals is bad idea."
Taft said the bed closures were the equivalent of closing the Grey Nuns Hospital in Edmonton, which has just over 300 beds.
The plan will diminish the care provided to Alberta seniors, NDP MLA Rachel Notley said.
"The plan for this government is to move critically ill seniors from acute-care hospital beds into, primarily, facilities which are not regulated the same way, which are not inspected the same way, which are not governed the same way and which do not provide the same level of care," she said.
"The only thing that those facilities provide more of is bills. Bills for the people who live in them."
Hospital costs are covered by medicare, but patients in assisted living homes and nursing homes are expected to pay some of their costs.
David Eggen, executive director of public health care advocacy group Friends of Medicare, called the plan a "shell game."
"Clearly this is an attempt to hijack public health care by moving funds and beds out of hospitals and over to private contractors across the province," he said.
There is nothing wrong with moving people who shouldn't be in a hospital bed, but they should be placed in publicly-funded long-term care facilities instead, Eggen said.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Private surgery clinic to expand
Number of operating rooms doubles
By Michelle Lang, Calgary HeraldSeptember 9, 2009Comments (7)
A controversial private clinic that performs hip and knee surgeries for Calgary's public health system has outgrown its location at the former Grace Hospital and is moving to a new facility with twice as many operating rooms.
In a development that has medicare advocates concerned about expanding private care, Health Resource Centre officials say their clinic will relocate to the Cambrian Medical Centre in northwest Calgary to boost the company's capacity to perform surgeries.
The new centre, which is under construction, has six surgical suites--compared to just three at the old Grace Hospital, where Health Resource Centre now leases space.
"We're pretty much at capacity for our (operating rooms) here today," said Bernie Simpson, chief operating officer of Networc Health Inc., the company that owns Health Resource Centre. "It just makes business sense to try to continue to grow."
While Simpson said there haven't been any negotiations to expand the company's surgical contract with the provincial superboard, he said the clinic is "always hoping and aspiring to do more work."
The Alberta Liberals said they are concerned about the clinic's expansion, arguing private surgical facilities lure health professionals from the city's public hospitals.
"Is this going to strengthen the publicly funded health system?" asked Dr. David Swann, the Alberta Liberal leader. "On the face of it, this will weaken the system."
Cambrian Medical Centre officials say their $70-million, 120,000-square foot building, which will also house other medical tenants such as a radiology clinic, will be ready for Health Resource Centre by next spring.
Health Resource Centre has been at the centre of a debate about private clinics since it won a contract to perform hundreds of hip and knee replacements for the former Calgary Health Region.
In 2007-08, the health authority bought some 916 of the operations from the clinic, at a cost of about $7.6 million. The clinic also performs procedures for the Workers' Compensation Board.
The decision to expand Health Resource Centre comes as some critics argue Alberta is heading toward greater privatization of health services.
Health Minister Ron Liepert announced last week he has created a task force to consider "a new way to define publicly-funded health services," among other reforms. Liepert said the task force is not about privatization and is intended to update aging health legislation.
Meanwhile, Alberta Health Services chief executive Stephen Duckett recently said he is open to the public health system contracting more procedures out to private clinics.
Health Resource's Simpson said this would make sense, arguing his clinic is less expensive than a public hospital, but Friends of Medicare said the superboard should do an analysis of the surgery costs.
"It stands to reason that a private contractor will be more expensive--they have to make a profit," said Dave Eggen, executive director of the organization.
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
Number of operating rooms doubles
By Michelle Lang, Calgary HeraldSeptember 9, 2009Comments (7)
A controversial private clinic that performs hip and knee surgeries for Calgary's public health system has outgrown its location at the former Grace Hospital and is moving to a new facility with twice as many operating rooms.
In a development that has medicare advocates concerned about expanding private care, Health Resource Centre officials say their clinic will relocate to the Cambrian Medical Centre in northwest Calgary to boost the company's capacity to perform surgeries.
The new centre, which is under construction, has six surgical suites--compared to just three at the old Grace Hospital, where Health Resource Centre now leases space.
"We're pretty much at capacity for our (operating rooms) here today," said Bernie Simpson, chief operating officer of Networc Health Inc., the company that owns Health Resource Centre. "It just makes business sense to try to continue to grow."
While Simpson said there haven't been any negotiations to expand the company's surgical contract with the provincial superboard, he said the clinic is "always hoping and aspiring to do more work."
The Alberta Liberals said they are concerned about the clinic's expansion, arguing private surgical facilities lure health professionals from the city's public hospitals.
"Is this going to strengthen the publicly funded health system?" asked Dr. David Swann, the Alberta Liberal leader. "On the face of it, this will weaken the system."
Cambrian Medical Centre officials say their $70-million, 120,000-square foot building, which will also house other medical tenants such as a radiology clinic, will be ready for Health Resource Centre by next spring.
Health Resource Centre has been at the centre of a debate about private clinics since it won a contract to perform hundreds of hip and knee replacements for the former Calgary Health Region.
In 2007-08, the health authority bought some 916 of the operations from the clinic, at a cost of about $7.6 million. The clinic also performs procedures for the Workers' Compensation Board.
The decision to expand Health Resource Centre comes as some critics argue Alberta is heading toward greater privatization of health services.
Health Minister Ron Liepert announced last week he has created a task force to consider "a new way to define publicly-funded health services," among other reforms. Liepert said the task force is not about privatization and is intended to update aging health legislation.
Meanwhile, Alberta Health Services chief executive Stephen Duckett recently said he is open to the public health system contracting more procedures out to private clinics.
Health Resource's Simpson said this would make sense, arguing his clinic is less expensive than a public hospital, but Friends of Medicare said the superboard should do an analysis of the surgery costs.
"It stands to reason that a private contractor will be more expensive--they have to make a profit," said Dave Eggen, executive director of the organization.
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
Thursday, September 3, 2009
SEE magazine
New Health Care Committee StruckPublished September 3, 2009 by Angela Brunschot Alberta • Health Care
A new provincial committee to examine Alberta health-care legislation is not an attempt to cut services or increase privatization, Health Minister Ron Liepert insists.
“It’s not about delisting services,” he said in announcing the committee, which will also look a the definition of publicly funded health care. “But I’m not going to prejudge what the committee might come back and recommend.”
The committee will consult with health-care stakeholders and report back to the minister in November on ways to improve Alberta’s health-care legislation, including the Hospitals Act and the Nursing Homes Act. It will be chaired by Tory MLA Fred Horn and patient advocate Deborah Prowse, and will include representatives from health professional organizations, health-care managers, and university professors.
The key goals of the committee are to provide advice on creating a new definition of publicly funded health care as guided by the Canada Health Act, options for more effective legislation, improving patient access, improving accountability for publicly funded procedures and spending that will improve overall health.
Liepert said he hopes the committee will kickstart a conversation on health care similar to the current American debate: “I wish that we as Canadians could engage in a similar kind of public debate,” he said, “one free of political rhetoric, and start to deal with the real issues and challenges that face us in health care.”
However, there are no plans for public town hall meetings as part of the committee’s work. The public can offer suggestions over the Internet.
Friends of Medicare, a provincial advocacy group, will be making a submission to the committee. Even though the group is skeptical about the intentions of the government, it urges all Albertans to submit their ideas to the committee.
“We are at a real tipping point with the direction of public health care,” executive director David Eggen said. “What happens in the next eight to 10 months will determine what public health care will look like for a long time. This is a narrow opportunity.”
Liberal MLA Hugh MacDonald dismissed the committee as a political ploy designed to deflect responsibility from the government’s own mismanagement of the system, specifically the de-regionalization of the health boards.
“The system is in a mess,” he said. “The government doesn’t know what to do. So they strike a committee so that they can pass the ball, so they don’t have to take responsibility.”
The committee report will be confidential, but Liepert promised that shortly after it was presented to him, he would “re-engage the stakeholders in a public release of the recommendations.”
A new provincial committee to examine Alberta health-care legislation is not an attempt to cut services or increase privatization, Health Minister Ron Liepert insists.
“It’s not about delisting services,” he said in announcing the committee, which will also look a the definition of publicly funded health care. “But I’m not going to prejudge what the committee might come back and recommend.”
The committee will consult with health-care stakeholders and report back to the minister in November on ways to improve Alberta’s health-care legislation, including the Hospitals Act and the Nursing Homes Act. It will be chaired by Tory MLA Fred Horn and patient advocate Deborah Prowse, and will include representatives from health professional organizations, health-care managers, and university professors.
The key goals of the committee are to provide advice on creating a new definition of publicly funded health care as guided by the Canada Health Act, options for more effective legislation, improving patient access, improving accountability for publicly funded procedures and spending that will improve overall health.
Liepert said he hopes the committee will kickstart a conversation on health care similar to the current American debate: “I wish that we as Canadians could engage in a similar kind of public debate,” he said, “one free of political rhetoric, and start to deal with the real issues and challenges that face us in health care.”
However, there are no plans for public town hall meetings as part of the committee’s work. The public can offer suggestions over the Internet.
Friends of Medicare, a provincial advocacy group, will be making a submission to the committee. Even though the group is skeptical about the intentions of the government, it urges all Albertans to submit their ideas to the committee.
“We are at a real tipping point with the direction of public health care,” executive director David Eggen said. “What happens in the next eight to 10 months will determine what public health care will look like for a long time. This is a narrow opportunity.”
Liberal MLA Hugh MacDonald dismissed the committee as a political ploy designed to deflect responsibility from the government’s own mismanagement of the system, specifically the de-regionalization of the health boards.
“The system is in a mess,” he said. “The government doesn’t know what to do. So they strike a committee so that they can pass the ball, so they don’t have to take responsibility.”
The committee report will be confidential, but Liepert promised that shortly after it was presented to him, he would “re-engage the stakeholders in a public release of the recommendations.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
.JPG)
