Sudden AHS ‘cost-containment measures’ could do more harm than good, UNA President warns

Sudden shifts in direction like the “cost-containment measures” announced by Alberta Health Services this morning have the potential to jeopardize patient safety by making existing staffing problems faced by front-line heath care workers more severe, United Nurses of Alberta President Heather Smith said today.

“Front-line staff struggle every day with over-capacity issues,” Smith said. “Inadequate staffing levels persist across the province and a hiring chill or hiring freeze is only going to further compromise patient care.”

“We have a collective agreement in place and those parts of the announcement that do impact our members will be addressed through the normal labour relations process,” Smith stated in response to the news conference this morning by AHS Chief Executive Officer Vickie Kaminski.

In addition, she said, the answer to sick leave requirements by front-line health care workers is adequate staffing, not the kind of punitive “attendance management” programs proposed by Kaminski. “UNA will work aggressively to ensure RNs who are sick get the sick time to which they are entitled by the collective agreement we have negotiated, a requirement that benefits the entire health care system.”

“Our members know that we have no intention of reopening the collective agreement negotiated with AHS over the past two years and signed in August 2014, and Ms. Kaminski acknowledged that this cannot be done,” Smith emphasized.

Nevertheless, Smith said, major changes in direction like those suddenly announced today show that AHS is reacting with a sense of panic to the political needs of the government and cyclical shifts in the economy.

“This does no good for health care in Alberta or for that matter for the economic stability of the province,” she said. “AHS should be another voice in this province calling on Premier Prentice to address our revenue deficits to ensure stable and predictable funding for essential public services like health and education. Alberta’s ability to meet the needs of our citizens should not be dependent on the price of oil.”

Smith said UNA is particularly concerned about the message the AHS announcement sends to nurses about to graduate from programs across the province. “We need Alberta-educated nurses to remain in Alberta,” she said. “Austerity measures during the Klein years resulted in the loss of a whole generation of Alberta-educated Registered Nurses.”

“Alberta’s Registered Nurses will be monitoring the implementation of these plans carefully with a commitment to the safety and wellbeing of our patients, their families, the public and the quality of services delivered in Alberta’s health care system,” Smith stated.