AUSTERITY KILLS
Shandro fires back at 'hyper-politicized' critics amid bed closures and labour unrestAuthor of the article:Bill Kaufmann
Publishing date:Jul 16, 2021 •
Health Minister Tyler Shandro speaks at a press conference outside the Peter Lougheed Centre on Friday, July 16, 2021. PHOTO BY AZIN GHAFFARI/POSTMEDIA
Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro lashed out at critics Friday as reports of hospital bed closures and anger among health-care workers continued to mount throughout the province.
Following the closures of dozens of beds in mainly rural areas throughout Alberta due to staff shortages, reports that 18 patient-spaces have closed at Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra Hospital surfaced late Thursday.
At the same time, nurses and health-care support workers are voicing anger after saying they’ve been asked by Alberta Health Services to accept wage cuts of three and four per cent, respectively.
“Everyone knows Premier (Jason) Kenney and Health Minister Shandro have no respect for front-line health-care workers, even after everything they’ve done for us during the pandemic, and here we see AHS following their orders to add insult to injury,” said Susan Slade, vice-president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, which represents support staff
In a tweet Thursday night, Edmonton emergency physician Shazma Mithani said 18 of 43 emergency room beds at the Royal Alexandra Hospital had shut because of staff shortages.
“Almost half of the beds in one of the busiest ERs in the country are closed because of staff shortages,” she said. “Let that sink in.”
An internal medicine physician at that hospital also tweeted deep concerns about the plight of its ER.
“Not only are ER beds closed and an issue, but we also don’t have enough discharges to accommodate new patients into ward spaces. This is bad. Very bad,” Dr. Neeja Bakshi said in a tweet.
In a statement, the AHS said 12 of the hospital’s ER beds were restored after four hours while six have been temporarily closed due to a staff shortage.
“There was no reduction in care for patients in the emergency department during those four hours and EMS was not diverted to avoid the Royal Alexandra Hospital,” said AHS, adding such situations are common, particularly in summer.
“We are constantly working to address staffing levels at our sites – as staff vacancies are filled, beds are reopened. The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact through staff redeployment and a depletion of the available pool of casual staff, which is being seen across Canada.”
The Opposition NDP condemned the province’s management of the health-care system for the bed closures, saying their treatment of health-care workers is partly to blame for sinking morale leading to staff shortages.
While unveiling a $4-million investment into hemodialysis services and ventilation system at the Peter Lougheed Centre on Friday, Shandro accused the NDP of lying about the health-care challenges facing the province and exploiting them.
“The NDP have hyper-politicized outrageous claims throughout COVID and this is another one of them,” he said.
“Of course our health-care system has been under enormous pressure for a year and a half just like every other health-care system in the world and Canada has and we continue to have those pressures.”
Bed closures, said Shandro, are “dynamic decisions responding to pressures on human resources to make sure people get the care they need.”
Last month, Shandro blamed staff vacations for stresses in the health-care system, but on Friday he said “burnout” is playing a role here and in other jurisdictions.
Alberta has 1,000 more nurses working today than it did a year ago and has reduced its pandemic-caused backlog of 40,000 surgical procedures to 15,000 — both indicators the health-care system is in good shape, he said.
“We’re not going to take the years other provinces are going to take to catch up on that backlog,” said Shandro.
He limited his comments on wage demands being made on nurses and support workers, insisting the UCP government isn’t dictating anything to health-care workers.
“This isn’t something the government is imposing heavily on health-care workers or their unions — these are conversations to be brought up at the negotiating table,” said Shandro.
Other jurisdictions might be having problems with staff stress and shortages, but they’re usually not trying to make them worse, said United Nurses of Alberta president Heather Smith.
“(Elsewhere) they’re not insulting every health-care worker in the system. In Alberta, they’re insulting everyone in the health-care continuum,” said Smith, adding the province is now at war with doctors, nurses and support staff.
When the bid by AHS to eliminate a two per cent lump sum payment is figured in, the requested pay rollback actually amounts to five per cent, she said.
That approach is making recruitment and retention far more difficult, with other jurisdictions luring away even well-paid Alberta nurses.
“We’re losing some very, very good, highly skilled people and senior workers,” said Smith.
Stress among staff coupled with tensions with the provincial government and AHS, she said, are increasing the calls among UNA members for some kind of labour action.
“How many times do you light a powder keg before it goes off?” said Smith.
The AHS is using a temporary structure field unit initially installed to handle pandemic overflow at the site of the Peter Lougheed Centre to take the pressure off increasingly busy ERs in the city.
Shandro said that’s an example of prudent contingency planning.
But NDP health-care critic David Shepherd said it’s a symptom of a health-care system besieged by the provincial government’s miscalculations during COVID-19.
“They’re reacting and that’s really what they’ve done throughout the pandemic particularly during the third wave,” said Shepherd.
“We know the minister can claim what he wants, but the evidence is on the ground.”
BKaufmann@postmedia.com
on Twitter:@BillKaufmannjrn
Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro lashed out at critics Friday as reports of hospital bed closures and anger among health-care workers continued to mount throughout the province.
Following the closures of dozens of beds in mainly rural areas throughout Alberta due to staff shortages, reports that 18 patient-spaces have closed at Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra Hospital surfaced late Thursday.
At the same time, nurses and health-care support workers are voicing anger after saying they’ve been asked by Alberta Health Services to accept wage cuts of three and four per cent, respectively.
“Everyone knows Premier (Jason) Kenney and Health Minister Shandro have no respect for front-line health-care workers, even after everything they’ve done for us during the pandemic, and here we see AHS following their orders to add insult to injury,” said Susan Slade, vice-president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, which represents support staff
In a tweet Thursday night, Edmonton emergency physician Shazma Mithani said 18 of 43 emergency room beds at the Royal Alexandra Hospital had shut because of staff shortages.
“Almost half of the beds in one of the busiest ERs in the country are closed because of staff shortages,” she said. “Let that sink in.”
An internal medicine physician at that hospital also tweeted deep concerns about the plight of its ER.
“Not only are ER beds closed and an issue, but we also don’t have enough discharges to accommodate new patients into ward spaces. This is bad. Very bad,” Dr. Neeja Bakshi said in a tweet.
In a statement, the AHS said 12 of the hospital’s ER beds were restored after four hours while six have been temporarily closed due to a staff shortage.
“There was no reduction in care for patients in the emergency department during those four hours and EMS was not diverted to avoid the Royal Alexandra Hospital,” said AHS, adding such situations are common, particularly in summer.
“We are constantly working to address staffing levels at our sites – as staff vacancies are filled, beds are reopened. The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact through staff redeployment and a depletion of the available pool of casual staff, which is being seen across Canada.”
The Opposition NDP condemned the province’s management of the health-care system for the bed closures, saying their treatment of health-care workers is partly to blame for sinking morale leading to staff shortages.
While unveiling a $4-million investment into hemodialysis services and ventilation system at the Peter Lougheed Centre on Friday, Shandro accused the NDP of lying about the health-care challenges facing the province and exploiting them.
“The NDP have hyper-politicized outrageous claims throughout COVID and this is another one of them,” he said.
“Of course our health-care system has been under enormous pressure for a year and a half just like every other health-care system in the world and Canada has and we continue to have those pressures.”
Bed closures, said Shandro, are “dynamic decisions responding to pressures on human resources to make sure people get the care they need.”
Last month, Shandro blamed staff vacations for stresses in the health-care system, but on Friday he said “burnout” is playing a role here and in other jurisdictions.
Alberta has 1,000 more nurses working today than it did a year ago and has reduced its pandemic-caused backlog of 40,000 surgical procedures to 15,000 — both indicators the health-care system is in good shape, he said.
“We’re not going to take the years other provinces are going to take to catch up on that backlog,” said Shandro.
He limited his comments on wage demands being made on nurses and support workers, insisting the UCP government isn’t dictating anything to health-care workers.
“This isn’t something the government is imposing heavily on health-care workers or their unions — these are conversations to be brought up at the negotiating table,” said Shandro.
Other jurisdictions might be having problems with staff stress and shortages, but they’re usually not trying to make them worse, said United Nurses of Alberta president Heather Smith.
“(Elsewhere) they’re not insulting every health-care worker in the system. In Alberta, they’re insulting everyone in the health-care continuum,” said Smith, adding the province is now at war with doctors, nurses and support staff.
When the bid by AHS to eliminate a two per cent lump sum payment is figured in, the requested pay rollback actually amounts to five per cent, she said.
That approach is making recruitment and retention far more difficult, with other jurisdictions luring away even well-paid Alberta nurses.
“We’re losing some very, very good, highly skilled people and senior workers,” said Smith.
Stress among staff coupled with tensions with the provincial government and AHS, she said, are increasing the calls among UNA members for some kind of labour action.
“How many times do you light a powder keg before it goes off?” said Smith.
The AHS is using a temporary structure field unit initially installed to handle pandemic overflow at the site of the Peter Lougheed Centre to take the pressure off increasingly busy ERs in the city.
Shandro said that’s an example of prudent contingency planning.
But NDP health-care critic David Shepherd said it’s a symptom of a health-care system besieged by the provincial government’s miscalculations during COVID-19.
“They’re reacting and that’s really what they’ve done throughout the pandemic particularly during the third wave,” said Shepherd.
“We know the minister can claim what he wants, but the evidence is on the ground.”
BKaufmann@postmedia.com
on Twitter:@BillKaufmannjrn
No comments:
Post a Comment