Uniform staffing, wages, cleaning standards for private sector continuing care a must: AUPE President
EDMONTON – Alberta Union of Provincial Employees President Guy Smith reacted to the Auditor General’s findings on private continuing care facilities today, calling on Alberta Health Services to implement uniform standards for cleanliness, staffing levels, and wages.
“We know that Alberta Health Services provides uniform funding for private sector continuing care operators, but in many cases operators are skimming these care dollars to pad their profits,” said Smith.
“Without standards to ensure staff levels, wages and cleanliness in the private continuing care sector are the same as the public system, we end up with a two-tier health care system for seniors,” he added.
“We’re proud to represent thousands of health care employees in these private sector facilities. They’re as talented as their counterparts in the public system, they care about the residents, and they deserve the same support and resources to provide proper care to seniors,” Smith said.
Yesterday’s report of Alberta’s Auditor General, Merwin Saher, uncovered a patchwork of inspection systems and standards across Alberta, with compliance enforcement split between AHS and the Human Services ministry. Smith said inconsistent standards and compliance mechanisms hurt the quality of care seniors receive in private for-profit and not-for-profit facilities.
Smith also observed that while AHS is doing cleaning audits to prevent the spread of “superbugs” in hospitals, those audits haven’t extended to privately operated seniors care facilities.
“Cleanliness and patient safety go hand in hand. There’s a clear link between lax cleaning and increased outbreaks of superbugs like MRSA and C-Difficile. There’s no excuse for private operators providing health services to be excluded from these audits,” said Smith.
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For more information:
Guy Smith, President, AUPE – 780-930-3301, or 780-265-2294 (cel.)
Mark Wells, Senior Communications Advisor, AUPE – 780-930-3311