Front-line workers must not be blamed for unsound health practices in High Prairie, AUPE president says
EDMONTON – Front-line health care workers must not be blamed for unsound practices that led to an infection-control incident at the High Prairie Health Complex, says the president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees.
“AUPE members in High Prairie and throughout Alberta who work in health care make the safety of patients their No. 1 priority every day on every shift,” said AUPE President Doug Knight.
“These employees have been raising warning flags throughout Alberta for years about how understaffing, overwork and cost-cutting policies pose a risk to patients and hospital staff,” he said.
“While we do not know how the government is going to respond to the situation in High Prairie, we want the record to show that we do not think it would be in any way appropriate for blame in this case to be assigned to working people who are doing their best in very difficult circumstances,” Knight said.
Alberta Health Services said today it has determined that disposable syringes may have been reused on multiple patients to administer medication through intravenous lines in the High Prairie Health Complex.
The practice may have resulted in infection being spread, the government health-services agency said.
An investigation determined the dangerous practice may have taken place during endoscopy procedures performed in High Prairie between March 1, 2004, and Oct. 2, 2008, affecting as many as 1,300 patients, the AHS news release said.
Knight said that this incident once again makes clear the need to properly staff and fund health care facilities. “Public health must not be run like an ordinary business in which the ‘bottom line’ is paramount,” he said.
“Proper staffing levels in a publicly operated health system supported by appropriate funding is the best way to operate a safe, fair and effective health system,” Knight concluded.
For more information, contact:
Doug Knight, President, AUPE, 780-930-3301 or 780-265-6655 (cellular phone)
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, AUPE, 780-930-3311 or 780-717-2943 (cellular phone)
Related Links:
Click here to read the Government of Alberta news release on this incident