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For Immediate Release   Friday, June 5, 2009 Hiring freeze running up overtime bill, closing hospital beds, delaying care for Albertans The de facto hiring freeze by Alberta Health Services is reducing care available to Albertans all over the province, says the United Nurses of Alberta. “Alberta Health Services has cancelled many, likely hundreds, of nursing job postings in the last few weeks,” says UNA Director of Labour Relations David Harrigan. On June 4 there were no nursing job vacancies in the Calgary area on the AHS website. In a region that employs thousands of nurses, over a hundred jobs have usually been empty at any one time. “We know there are many, many jobs that are vacant and these are nurses who are needed to care for patients,” David Harrigan said.   The nurses’ union is filing grievances about the deliberate vacancies. The empty jobs are putting tremendous strain on everyone. “AHS can say it’s not a freeze, but the effect is pretty chilling in Alberta’s health system,” says David Harrigan. “This is a huge cut in services for Albertans and the impact will be noticed by many patients who have to wait longer to be seen or wait longer when they call their nurse.” “Albertans need to know about the impact these decisions will have.  We are very concerned when CEO Duckett says every nurse he doesn’t hire today is one he doesn’t have to lay off tomorrow.  He’s saying health care staffing is being cut back a great deal,” Harrigan says. An electronic record of postings and filled jobs obtained from central Alberta (see attached) shows more vacant positions cancelled than hired. UNA has received reports about impact of the hiring freeze from nurses all over the province.  The location and identity of the nurses has been removed to protect them from possible employer retribution. “I have three vacancies in my local which the employer is not filling but instead using mandatory OT to have RNs work the shifts. There are no casual RNs on either of these two units. One of the units did have a posting go up this week for casual but not for the empty line. I also have a weekend worker who is constantly getting vacation denied as there is no staff to work the shifts,” reports one nurse. “We actually had 9 nurses on overtime tonight including one who stayed for 4 hours after her 12 hour shift to help out . This unit expects nurses to call in at 5:30 to see if they’re still needed for overtime, and not the unit calling the nurse to tell them they’re being cancelled.” “But now vacancies don’t seem to be getting posted (our manager has sent in the request but as of a couple of days ago it was not on the web). So once again we have some shifts with only one nurse to  assess  and treat up to 50 plus patients in the ER department.” “In our hospital this past weekend 2 RN’s and 1 LPN each worked a 16 hour shift. All job postings have been taken down.” “Over the past weekend they would not or could not fill sick time vacation etc. so they closed 4 beds.” More comments from nurses appear on the United Nurses of Alberta website: www.una.ab.ca. United Nurses of Alberta is the union of over 24,000 Registered Nurses, Registered Psychiatric Nurses, and allied health workers including Licensed Practical Nurses and others. —30— For Further Comment:  David Harrigan  780 425-1025 Attached: Alberta Health Services Human Resource Document shows huge number of vacant positions being left empty Alberta Health Services Human Resource Document shows huge number of vacant positions being left empty AHS CENTRAL ZONE - UNA - Successful Candidates May 29, 2009                 Bulletin #       Location Description   Successful Candidate    08-CCS-3668 Bentley Care Centre Posting Cancelled       08-CCS-2013 Breton Health Centre POSTING CANCELLED       08-MHS-3690 Centennial Centre for Mental Health & Brain Injury      NAME.. Filled  09-MHS-249 Centennial Centre for Mental Health & Brain Injury POSTING CANCELLED       09-MHS-248 Centennial Centre for Mental Health & Brain Injury POSTING CANCELLED       09-MHS-328 Centennial Centre for Mental Health & Brain Injury POSTING CANCELLED       09-MHS-448 Centennial Centre for Mental Health & Brain Injury NAME.. Filled  09-MHS-462 Centennial Centre for Mental Health & Brain Injury POSTING CANCELLED       09-MHS-451 Centennial Centre for Mental Health & Brain Injury POSTING CANCELLED       09-MHS-571 Centennial Centre for Mental Health & Brain Injury cancelled due to vacancy review process 09-MHS-570 Centennial Centre for Mental Health & Brain Injury cancelled due to vacancy review process 09-MHS-592 Centennial Centre for Mental Health & Brain Injury POSTING CANCELLED       09-MHS-780 Centennial Centre for Mental Health & Brain Injury NAME.. Filled  09-MHS-834 Centennial Centre for Mental Health & Brain Injury NAME.. Filled   09-PCA-35  Coronation Hospital and Care Centre CANCELLED       09-CCS-473 Coronation Hospital and Care Centre posting cancelled       09-CCS-475 Coronation Hospital and Care Centre POSTING CANCELLED       09-PCA-110 Drayton Valley Hospital and Care Centre Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 08-PCA-3755 Drumheller Health Centre   Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-CCS-120 Drumheller Health Centre   POSTING CANCELLED       09-CCS-121 Drumheller Health Centre   POSTING CANCELLED       09-PCA-641 Drumheller Health Centre   Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-PCA-642 Drumheller Health Centre   Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-PCA-639 Drumheller Health Centre   Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-MED-1041 Drumheller Health Centre   WILL BE POSTED AT A LATER DATE  09-COM-351 Elnora Community Health Centre CANCELLED       09-CCS-606 Olds Hospital and Care Centre POSTING CANCELLED       09-PCA-153 Ponoka Hospital and Care Centre WILL NOT BE APPROVED PER NEW VACANCY REVIEW PROCESS    09-PCA-151 Ponoka Hospital and Care Centre Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-PCA-149 Ponoka Hospital and Care Centre Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-PCA-152 Ponoka Hospital and Care Centre Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-PCA-150 Ponoka Hospital and Care Centre Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-PCA-298 Ponoka Hospital and Care Centre Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-COM-876 Red Deer Bremner Ave Community Health Centre  NAME.. Filled  09-PHN-983 Red Deer Johnstone Crossing NAME.. Filled  08-PCA-3778 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  NAME.. Filled    09-COM-225 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  NAME.. Filled   09-PCA-296 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-PCA-318 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-PCA-405 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  CANCELLED       09-PCA-435 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-PCA-437 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-MHS-447 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  POSTING CANCELLED       09-PCA-511 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-PCA-513 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-PCA-510 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  CANCELLED       09-PCA-505 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-PCA-514 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-PCA-500 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-PCA-504 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-PCA-499 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  NAME.. Filled  09-PCA-527 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-PCA-526 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-PCA-547 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-PCA-609 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-PCA-597 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-PCA-613 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-PCA-725 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  NAME.. Filled    09-PCA-726 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  NAME.. Filled  09-PCA-743 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  NAME.. Filled  09-PCA-841 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre  NAME.. Filled  09-PCA-1010 Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre NAME.. Filled  08-PCA-2800 Rocky Mountain House Community Health Centre      CANCELLED 08-PCA-3377 Stettler Hospital and Care Centre  Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-PCA-549 Stettler Hospital and Care Centre  Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-PCA-550 Stettler Hospital and Care Centre  Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process Stewart, Beverly        08-PCA-2677 Sundre Hospital and Care Centre CANCELLED       08-PCA-3782 Sundre Hospital and Care Centre Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-PCA-631 Sundre Hospital and Care Centre Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 08-PCA-2697 Wetaskiwin Hospital and Care Centre CANCELLED       08-PCA-3631 Wetaskiwin Hospital and Care Centre CANCELLED       09-CCS-277 Wetaskiwin Hospital and Care Centre POSTING CANCELLED       09-PCA-491 Wetaskiwin Hospital and Care Centre Must be approved per new Vacancy Review Process 09-PCA-586 Wetaskiwin Hospital and Care Centre NAME.. Filled