Health minister shrugs off demand for real-time tracking of Alberta medical staff shortages


Health Minister Tyler Shandro responded to the NDP’s demand for real-time tracking of bed closures in Alberta hospitals Wednesday by accusing the Opposition of playing political games.

© Provided by Edmonton Journal Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro.

Lisa Johnson 
lijohnson@postmedia.com

When asked if the province would commit to the real-time reporting amid a shortage of health-care staff that’s led to temporary closures, Shandro accused the NDP of lying about the extent of the province’s challenges.

“They told us that the doctors were fleeing the province, they attacked our contingency plans when it came to field hospitals, they told Albertans that we were firing nurses during the pandemic — they were all complete lies and the NDP are again abject and complete liars,” said Shandro at an unrelated news conference, doubling down on similar comments he made Monday.

Shandro called the NDP demand for public data a “ruse” that amounted to an attack on nurses, doctors and senior leaders at AHS for political gain.

Shandro has said the province is recruiting more health-care staff, including 1,000 more nurses over the last year, and Wednesday added there are 1,700 more registered nurses in the province now than in 2019, when the NDP was in government.

Staffing shortages have affected Edmonton facilities, including Royal Alexandra Hospital, which closed an additional 12 beds for four hours late last week on top of six beds that remain closed , and Grey Nuns Hospital, which will operate at 80 per cent outpatient capacity in its endoscopy unit for two weeks.

Covenant Health spokeswoman Karen Diaper said in a statement the reduction is the result of staffing coverage issues “due to pre-approved staff vacations and unexpected absences for non-COVID-related medical concerns.”

Video: Pediatric ER Crisis (Global News)

Elsewhere, the emergency department at St. Theresa General Hospital in Fort Vermilion will be without an overnight doctor until July 31, and this past weekend, the Sacred Heart Community Health Centre’s emergency department in McLennan was without a doctor for a total of 30 hours .

While Alberta Health Services tracks emergency room wait times and publishes them online , not all bed closures are announced publicly.

NDP Leader Rachel Notley said Albertans deserve to see the details of the challenges being faced within the health-care system so that leaders can be held to account for their efforts to fix them.

“We need the minister to stop gaslighting frontline workers, stop gaslighting Albertans and start taking his ministerial responsibility seriously. I get that it’s a big job, but you do not earn trust by pretending the problem doesn’t exist,” said Notley.

She added similar challenges, sparked in part by burnout from the COVID-19 pandemic, are happening across the country, but the UCP government’s bargaining proposals for wage cuts for health-care workers are exacerbating the problem in Alberta.

“This burnout is being made even worse by the utter lack of respect this government has shown for the sacrifices of these Albertans,” said Notley.

The NDP has noted that over the past two months, bed closures and ER shutdowns have also been reported at hospitals in Edson, St. Paul, Boyle, Elk Point, Galahad, Westlock, Fairview, Rocky Mountain House, Cold Lake, Lac La Biche, High Prairie, Slave Lake, Wainwright, Rimbey, Barrhead and Lacombe.