Beds at High River Hospital to be cut by a third, employees told

For immediate release: Tuesday, July 30, 2013 


Employees of the High River General Hospital including members of the United Nurses of Alberta have been informed of significant post-flood reductions of about a third of the beds in the facility.

High River General Hospital employees were called to a meeting yesterday, UNA First Vice-President Bev Dick said today, and informed that 25 of the 107-bed hospital’s 75 public long-term care beds would now be permanently closed.

In addition, the hospital’s 10 alternative care beds used for patients awaiting transfer to long-term care will be closed, the employees were told.

Health Minister Fred Horne told the Calgary Herald last week that services offered at the facility before flooding last month ravaged the Southern Alberta town would be restored “the way they were in operation prior to the flood incident.”

“This amounts to a reduction of service in High River by stealth,” Dick said.

“At the same time, we understand the flood is being used as an opportunity by Alberta Health Services to open beds in a private, for-profit facility that is planned for High River,” she added. 

“So this continues a disturbing pattern we have seen with AHS: hurting Alberta’s vulnerable seniors by replacing public nursing home beds with private, for-profit, supportive living sites that cost families far more and do not provide a comparable level of nursing care, and doing it in a deceptive way,” Dick said.

Private-sector assisted living facilities that are not required to have a Registered Nurse on duty at all times are not a suitable replacement for properly staffed nursing homes, Dick said. In addition, residents and their families are required to pay for many routine services provided by nursing homes. 

Horne’s comments were made to the Calgary Herald last week after members of the facility’s medical staff demanded that all services at the hospital be restored immediately. 

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