As many families, homeowners and businesses continue to struggle in the face of the ongoing cost-of-living crisis in the province, reports that the provincial government is contemplating cuts to some health-care staffing is an additional worry.
In a release issued last week, the United Nurses of Alberta said it obtained a copy of a memorandum from Alberta Health Services (AHS) instructing the provincewide health-care agency’s senior leaders to try to reduce the use of overtime and agency staffing by at least 10 per cent.
“The impact of such an inflammatory policy will be more burn-out and sick time among front-line staff and will undermine efforts to retain and recruit front-line health-care employees,” said UNA labour relations director David Harrigan.
“The reaction of front-line nurses represented by UNA and members of other unions is bound to be extremely harsh. We would hope AHS does not intend to pursue policies that are certain to have a serious impact on front-line service delivery, patient safety and labour relations.”
The UCP government recently announced a major overhaul of the health-care system, including reorganizing AHS into four service-delivery units, a move Premier Danielle Smith said will lead to long-term improvements to patient care.
Adriana LaGrange, minister of Alberta Health, recently said, “We really value our nurses and all of our health-care professionals, particularly the front-line professionals that we have, and we are going to be looking to grow our front lines.”
The official Opposition calls the proposed cuts to staffing a “flagrant attack on health-care workers.”
“Costs of care have increased because the UCP has failed to properly invest in public health care. The only way to decrease costs is doing just that – training, hiring, and retaining the frontline staff we need,” said Luanne Metz, Alberta NDP critic for Emergency & Surgical Care.
With Alberta in a $5.5 billion budget surplus position, is it not surprising that cuts to health-care system staff would even be contemplated at this juncture?
Dan Singleton is an editor with the Albertan.
