Vegreville Singled out for Second-rate Continuing Care

Vegreville Singled out for Second-rate Continuing Care

Mike Dempsey Submitted

The people of Vegreville have a right to ask why the residents of continuing-care facilities in their community are being put at greater risk than other Albertans.

Vegreville is the only community where Alberta Health Services (AHS) has applied for an exemption to the public health order that limits workers to employment at a single site during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The order was issued by the Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw on April 1. It had been determined that it was necessary to “further restrict the movement of staff between health-care facilities.”

Much like other jurisdictions in Canada and around the world, it was recognized that seniors in continuing-care facilities were at the greatest risk from COVID-19. Once the virus got into a facility, it could sweep through residents leaving a trail of death in its wake. Having staff work at more than one site increased the risk of the virus being transported between facilities.

About 75 percent of the 149 pandemic deaths in Alberta have been in continuingcare facilities. One long-term-care home in Calgary has seen more than 20 COVID-19 deaths. There have been COVID-19 outbreaks at 39 facilities. So, here we are many weeks after the order was due to be implemented and something that was “necessary” to save lives is no longer going to happen in Vegreville.

Why?

AHS said it needed the exemption because it was proving impossible to recruit enough workers for the four facilities in Vegreville. However, AHS did not explain why it was proving so difficult. Well, here are some reasons. Last year, Optima Living laid off more than 50 workers at its Century Living facility when it contracted out their work. Those workers could apply for their old jobs, but at wages up to $8 per hour less. It did this so it could give “greater return to [the company’s] shareholders.”

Pardon the health-care analogy, but it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see that slashing wages and firing workers is going to make it harder to recruit, especially when these workers are being asked to risk their lives by coming to work.

The situation in Vegreville is the perfect example of why our continuing-care system is broken.

The patchwork of public and private facilities leads to inconsistent standards of care. The profit motive means the bottom line becomes more important than care.

The people of Vegreville and all Albertans deserve better. They deserve a continuing-care system that treats all residents with fairness, consistency and respect.

The only way to achieve that is to bring all care facilities into a publicly funded and publicly delivered system.

(Mike Dempsey is vice-president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, which represents about 95,000 workers, including about 58,000 in health care.)