EDMONTON—The UCP government and Alberta Health Services (AHS) must stop blaming hospital service disruptions on staff taking vacation, says the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE).
Health Minister Tyler Shandro began blaming summer-long rural hospital bed and emergency room closures on vacations in June of this year. The health authority has continued to use this excuse as recently as Monday, August 16, when AHS tweeted the closure of the Royal Alexandra Hospital’s Orthopedic Surgery Centre was because of staff taking vacation and an “unexpected” physician shortage.
“Albertans are expected to believe the recent hospital closures are because too many staff are taking vacation?” asks AUPE Vice-President and Licensed Practical Nurse Susan Slade. “Give me a break.
“The UCP government is attacking health care workers across the province. They are chasing doctors out of Alberta, deferring to privatized, for-profit health whenever possible, and alongside AHS are threatening to fire 11,000 staff while rolling back wages for the rest, all during a global pandemic. Their excuses aren’t fooling anyone.”
Far from unexpected, service disruptions and bed reductions are exactly what one would expect to see when the government wages war on the health care workers who have already suffered immeasurably because of the pandemic.
Furthermore, it is a problem that could have been prevented if the UCP and AHS showed some real leadership.
“We would not be in this position if the UCP hadn’t let the pandemic waves turn into tsunamis,” says Slade. “Workers’ health and morale would not have plummeted if they weren’t taking on this virus while short-staffed. They would not be anxiously looking for new work if AHS replaced their threats of rollbacks and firings with increased resources to support these health care heroes.
“The closures and service disruptions are not the front-line workers’ responsibility. The UCP and AHS need to own this.”
AUPE is western Canada’s largest union, with approximately 40,000 members working for AHS.
Vice-President Slade is available for interviews.
Please contact Alexander Delorme, AUPE Communications Officer: 780-264-9274 or a.delorme@aupe.org
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