May 10, 2005
Nurses vote 95% for one-year extension
In the May 4 provincial ratification ballot 95% of the nurses voted in favour of the one-year contract extension with a 3% salary increase. The vote was passed by all of the Locals, which included all Locals involved in provincial bargaining, the Health Regions and associated voluntary organizations, many long-term care Locals and the Alberta Cancer Board.
The vote also included the nurses at the Good Samaritan Society, although the Society is the one Employer who has so far indicated they will not be joining in on the extension.
“Stabilizing and improving work settings is increasingly important to the retention of nurses in Alberta,” Heather Smith said. “This extension gives both parties an opportunity to address workplace issues, such as workload, and occupational health and safety.” On-going talks in a special joint committee between representatives from UNA and the health regions are continuing in an effort to work out problem areas including benefits and travel compensation.
The extension puts the contract expiry date to March 31, 2007 for: all Locals covered by the provincial agreement, including Health Regions, Caritas and other voluntary organizations, Alberta Cancer Board, Bethany Care Society (Calgary and Cochrane), Bethany Group (Camrose), Capital Care CareWest, Colonel Belcher Millwoods, Shepherds Care St. Michael’s Lethbridge, St. Michael’s Edmonton, St. Joseph’s Edmonton, Youville Home St. Albert. One Employer, the Good Samaritan Society, has so far indicated they will not be joining in on the extension.”
Friends of Medicare conference highlights hazards of private health care
Canadian Medicare works and is the envy of the world, Federal Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh told the Weighing the Evidence conference in Calgary, April 30 and May 1. Dosanjh’s comments on the effectiveness of the universal Canadian system summed up quite a bit of evidence presented by the international list of speakers at the conference.
The nearly 300 participants gave a standing ovation to Claudia Fegan, a doctor from Chicago and past president of Physicians for a National Health Plan, when she concluded: “Don’t you dare close your eyes, turn your back or look the other way and let for-profit health care providers come north and destroy your Medicare.”
Friends of Medicare coordinator Harvey Voogd said they were holding the conference to give Albertans more international evidence on health care. The citizens’ organization wants to counter balance the massaged messaging from the government. The provincial government’s symposium May 3 to 5 will be carefully controlled to “manufacture consent” among Albertans for further privatization of the health system, he said.
Experts at government’s Symposium also support public health services
“Couldn’t they find any experts in the world to support their push for private health services?” asked one observer after the government’s $1.3 million Symposium held at the Westin in Calgary May 3 to 5.
UNA President Heather Smith, who attended the conference, also commented that the experts overwhelmingly pointed to the efficiency and higher quality of publicly delivered health services. “It’s as though the Friends of Medicare conference just continued for 3 more days,” she said. “The evidence clearly does not support the government’s push to for-profit delivery, or its message that public services are “unsustainable,” she said.
Alberta NDP Leader Brian Mason who was also at the meeting said most of the 28 experts at the three-day forum suggested user fees and a greater reliance on for-profit services will just drive up health-care costs.
Health and Wellness Minister Iris Evans agreed that the consensus was against privatization of services. “Most of the speakers who shared their perspective said it would cost more,” she said.
Auditor General lambastes LTC
Alberta’s Auditor General says nearly one-third of the province’s Long-Term Care facilities have trouble meeting basic standards in a special report tabled in the Legislature.
``Overall, we are most concerned about facilities failing to meet criteria for providing medication to residents, maintaining medical records, particularly the application and recording of physical and chemical restraints,’’ said Fred Dunn.
He said that half the 25 facilities he visited did not have enough registered nurses on duty. In all, only seven homes fully met basic standards of care.
To fix the problem, Dunn recommended the government improve basic standards of care and establish regular reviews to ensure those standards are followed.
Nursing Week 2005
Report says nurse shortage will worsen
Nursing Week kicked off this year with a report out of Ottawa on May 9 saying that Canadian nursing schools are being forced to cut spaces even though there is a critical shortage of nurses across the country.
The report comes out of the Building the Future joint intergovernmental project, described as the most comprehensive ever done on Canada’s nursing workforce. It says the nursing shortage is affecting quality, especially in long-term care.
But it says many nursing schools aren’t getting enough money from the provinces to adequately train the students they already have.
The study says wealthy provinces can attract nurses by recruiting from poorer provinces and countries, but that’s not ethical or sustainable.
PIA launches push for childcare
Edmonton - “Alberta families are tired of waiting,” says Lynn Odynski, with Public Interest Alberta. “The time has come for the Alberta government to offer all parents the choice of access to a quality, affordable and accountable early learning and childcare system that they can trust”.
UNA is a member of Public Interest Alberta, a non-partisan provincial advocacy organization, which launched a childcare campaign to get the province into the national childcare plan last week.
On the Light Side
The first surgeon says, “I like to see accountants on my operating table because when you open them up, everything inside is numbered.”
The second responds, “Yeah, but you should try electricians! Everything inside them is color coded.”
The third surgeon says, “No, I really think librarians are the best; everything inside them is in alphabetical order.”
The fourth surgeon chimes in: “You know, I like construction workers; those guys always understand when you have a few parts left over at the end, and when the job takes longer than you said it would.”
But the fifth surgeon shut them all up when he observed “You’re all wrong, politicians are the easiest to operate on.” “There’s no guts, no heart, no brains and no spine, and the head and the butt are interchangeable. “
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