UNA encouraged by health minister's commitment to front-line staff

United Nurses of Alberta was encouraged by the commitment to front-line staff, including nurses, made by Health Minister Fred Horne during his Sept. 10 announcement of plans to dramatically streamline the management of Alberta Health Services.

“The top leadership of the health care system has now clearly indicated it will listen to front-line health workers,” said UNA President Heather Smith. “We are hopeful this will include paying attention to nurses and other front-line workers about the proper mix of staffing that is required to treat patients.”

Smith noted that Horne’s assurances he values front-line staff and their insights were also repeated at the Sept. 10 news conference by both Deputy Health Minister Janet Davidson and AHS CEO Dr. Chris Eagle. “It is very encouraging that there seems to be broad agreement at the top level of the health care system to support front-line staff and the work they do,” Smith said.

But this commitment now needs to be translated into a decision to reverse current AHS plans for reductions of nurses and other health professionals in front-line care positions, Smith stated.

Using a number of innocuous sounding names such as “workforce transformation,” “clinical workforce strategic plan,” and “scheduling optimization,” AHS has been experimenting with work schedules at some locations that would significantly reduce the number of RNs and replace them with unregulated and quickly trained health care aides. These plans also call for a significant increase in the numbers of out-of-scope supervisory staff.

A UNA analysis of a “demonstration project” for this staffing model at four Edmonton hospital wards suggests if implemented across the province it would result in 25 to 40 per cent decrease in the number of regulated health care employees working with patients.

This has been characterized by some observers as a radical experiment to reduce the number of RNs and other regulated professionals, Smith noted. “Saving money never justifies jeopardizing patient safety.”

“AHS leadership has already heard clearly from its front-line health professionals that this model will cause unnecessary risk to patients and increase recovery times,” Smith said. “We are now hopeful the health system leadership’s assurances mean attention will be paid to front-line health workers’ serious concerns.”

At the Sept. 10 news conference, Horne unveiled a major overhaul of AHS management that he said would make it leaner and emphasize the need for managers to support front-line care providers. He described the changes as necessary to improve the quality of patient care.

He said the shakeup will reduce the number of AHS vice-presidents from more than 80 to 10.

AHS’s five geographic zones will be reduced to two, Horne also told the news conference, each led by three executives, a vice-president, chief operating officer and medical director.