HSAA president Mike Parker says the full extent of the province's ambulance service crisis is being hidden and is calling upon the government to take three steps to ensure the future of the entire health care system.
In a press conference this morning, Parker, president of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA), asked the government to protect the mental and physical health of healthcare professionals and develop a plan to retain and recruit healthcare professionals.
“No matter what we’ve encountered, health-care professionals will always be there for Albertans, but after two incredibly stressful pandemic years, many are struggling to keep going," says Parker. "They need help from this government so they can continue to provide us care."
From Jan. 10 to 16, Parker says there were 266 unfilled paramedic shifts, and three Edmonton labs remain closed indefinitely due to staff shortages. He claims there are over 1,000 health care vacancies in the province.
"The true answers are being hidden currently as the employer and the government states there is no impact," state Parker. "I can tell you that our members from across this province are reporting unfilled shifts and forced overtime when they can't get home at the end of the day because there are no people available. There's a disconnect here, and we need the employer and government to come clean on what's truly happening on the frontlines of our system."
He says the latest trend has been the denial of time off.
"We have pressure from employers who aggressively encourage our folks back to work again, and it's been a relatively new piece in the last few weeks that is adjusting the employer's position on how to deal with members who are not available for work."
The union is now better equipped to better communicate this information via social media while protecting the identity of its members, but he says the issue itself has been building.
"I think this highlights a system that has been under immense strain for over a decade. We have fewer hospital beds today than we did back in the 90s. We continue to fail at resourcing our health care system properly. We need to be extremely concerned because the health care system that all Albertans rely on is struggling and it needs to be recognized that resources need to be added to the frontlines of health care to ensure that our members of there for when Albertans need them the most."
Parker says the government has been asked many times for an independent review on the ambulance issue and declined to take action.
"The government does not respond, and AHS has more than enough excuses on a system that is struggling. If it takes an independent review, let's get some people looking at it. Let's get a committee of folks on the frontline to explain it because our members are the medical professionals that are out there on the frontline. They see this every day. They know where the resources need to be added. So let's talk to them."
Parker says it was known enrollment for those entering health care professions has been on the decline for some time.
"This is a major issue where we are going to be competitive against all of Canada to try and hire the available medical professionals in labs and paramedics, and a whole gamma of health care professionals, and we find these are shortages are arising everywhere."
The press conference coincided with the launch of a new HSAA TV campaign.
Thu, May 2, 4:30 PM
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