Hasty decision to close mental health beds was the real ‘debacle,’ AUPE president says
In a letter to the editor of the Edmonton Journal, AUPE President Guy Smith argued today that from the perspective of taxpayers and members of the health care community the hasty decision to close beds last year at Alberta Hospital Edmonton was a true “debacle.”
Smith was responding to a Jan. 9 letter from former Alberta Health Services CEO Stephen Duckett, who had claimed the conversion of Villa Caritas in Edmonton to use as a geriatric facility was an achievement, not a debacle as suggest by an editorial in the Journal on
Jan. 7.
“From the perspective of Alberta taxpayers and members of the health care community, the real debacle was the incomprehensible and potentially disastrous decision announced in August 2010 by Dr. Duckett and his AHS management team to close more than 200 acute mental-health beds at Alberta Hospital Edmonton,” Smith wrote in the letter published today.
“The situation at Villa Caritas and the significant cost to taxpayers associated with it stem directly from that ill-conceived and hasty decision,” Smith said.
The decision to move the geriatric psychiatric program to Villa Caritas had three harmful effects, he said. It scattered the comprehensive psychiatric services available at Alberta Hospital, wasted taxpayers’ money and prevented needed long-term care beds from coming into service to help reduce pressure on Edmonton-area Emergency Rooms.
“All of the disruption, upheaval and uncertainty surrounding Alberta Hospital Edmonton would not have transpired without the debacle that was the original decision to close beds at Alberta Hospital Edmonton,” Smith said.
“The current government and AHS officials have the opportunity to make amends for this debacle by ensuring a future of quality mental health services for all Albertans by following through on the plans to redevelop Alberta Hospital Edmonton,” he concluded.