The Alberta Government is taking uncharacteristically quick action in response to last week’s report from the auditor general. That report criticized the government and Alberta Health Services for failing to create an adequate system of long-term care potentially shortening the lives of seniors and other patients who need consistent supportive care outside emergency rooms.
On October 14 the government announced it would open 464 continuing care spaces in Alberta over the next 12 months. One hundred and ninety-four of those spaces will be in Calgary. A further $60 million will provide extended care to patients remaining in acute care facilities.
“We currently have more than 700 acute care spaces — roughly the equivalent of three hospitals — being used by Albertans who are patiently waiting for placement in continuing care. By quickly transitioning these seniors out of hospital and making necessary investments in home care and continuing care we can provide a better quality of life for our seniors and ease pressure on provincial hospitals” said Health Minister Stephen Mandel during a press conference.
“We’re taking concrete steps to relieve pressure on Alberta’s hospitals by considering the flow of the overall system…. We believe there will be meaningful progress in short order” said Premier Jim Prentice during the same conference.
However Alberta Liberal Party leader Raj Sherman quickly criticized the plan for being similar to a failed 2011 initiative intended to relieve pressure on hospitals. “The government did the exact same thing… in 2011. It opened a few temporary beds until things quieted down but didn’t address the underlying systemic issues” he said in a press release.
Sherman maintains the shortage in long-term care spaces and subsequent backlog in hospitals of complex care patients who cannot get care in their community is the result of the privatization of continuing care. About a third of long-term care spaces in Alberta are provided by private-for-profit business. Sherman says private businesses reject patients whose needs are too complex to be profitable leaving hospitals to care for them.
Meanwhile front-line health-care workers rallied outside Mandel’s campaign office on October 15 following the breakdown of contract negotiations with the Health Sciences Association of Alberta. HSAA president Elisabeth Ballermann says one of the things health workers want is the ability to choose when they take earned time off.
