EDMONTON - As long as our government pays corporations to treat vulnerable Albertans like cash registers, the continuing-care system will remain in a rut, says the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE).
Today (May 31), the UCP released recommendations based on the results of a survey it published last year for improving the province’s continuing-care system. But the union, which represents about 50,000 healthcare workers, says the government will fail if it doesn’t nationalize all parts of the healthcare system.
“Heavy workloads, insufficient staffing, and over-reliance on part-time positions are very real problems in the continuing-care industry,” says AUPE Vice-President Mike Dempsey, “But the solution isn’t more bailouts for the businesses that caused these messes. As long as the government subsidizes care companies, they’ll find ways to profit off the pain of everyday people. And I don’t see anything in this report calling for an end to that exploitative cycle.”
With no national standards in place for continuing-care homes, private operators undermine quality care for profit by downgrading the protections, benefits, and wages of staff. Lower working conditions result in high turnover and inconsistent caregiving, which are the norm since private operators monopolized the industry.
“The report acknowledges that poor working conditions are a problem, but it doesn’t go far enough to hold the culprits responsible,” says Dempsey. “I’m talking about the bosses. The puppet masters behind the scenes, who manipulate schedules, reject sick pay, invent new classifications, sub-contract out services – basically take every chance they can to grub dollars at the cost of patients’ health. They don’t respect our members and neither does the Health Minister. Today in his press conference he couldn’t even commit to a plan for preventing more COVID deaths among healthcare workers and honouring the six who lost their lives. He didn’t even know whether continuing-care staff get guaranteed sick pay.”
In addition to robbing Albertans of quality jobs, care companies also rob seniors, the chronically ill and people with disabilities by up-selling shoddy hospitality services. Most private operators will pour resources into money-making services while side-lining medically necessary ones or prioritizing lower levels of care to protect their profit margin.
“As long as the profit-motive drives this industry forward, it’ll always answer to shareholders while ignoring the needs of the public,” says Dempsey. “The UCP are trying to glaze over this reality because it doesn’t fit with their corporate ideology. They’re addressing the symptoms of the disease that plagues the care industry, but not the actual cause. But unlike them, we’re not ignoring the facts. Our recommendation – bring all continuing-care homes under public control now!”
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Celia Shea, Communications 780-720-8122