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Is Alberta ready for COVID-19?

March 18, 2020 9:00 AM

Alberta is bracing for the impact of COVID-19. Is our health care system ready for the challenge?

By Alyssa Pretty, Communications Officer at Friends of Medicare. March 18, 2020.

For decades, Canada has benefited from a single-payer medicare system, which is there for us based on need, not ability to pay. While there is certainly room for improvement – the inclusion of dental, optometry, and pharmacare to the medicare umbrella, for a start – people across the country can rest easy knowing that they can rely on our health care system to care for them when they need it, without worrying about how they are going to pay. However, in the face of a global pandemic, the quality and preparedness of our health care system becomes even more crucial. Globally, we are staring down an outbreak of yet unclear proportions. As COVID-19 wreaks havoc on China, Italy, and Iran, we here in Alberta are bracing for impact. Is our health care system ready for the challenge?

The human cost of health care cuts: An Alberta nurse speaks out on the closure of the iOAT program

March 11, 2020 1:00 PM

Following the recent report released by the supervised consumption services review committee, the fate of Alberta's SCS and other harm reduction services is more uncertain than ever. The next day, Albertans learned that funding for injectable opioid agonist therapy (iOAT) would not be continued, and that the 63 patients in the program would be given one year to transfer to alternate treatment. Given that clients are only referred to the iOAT program when other treatments fail, the impacts of this funding cut will likely be devastating for the people who depend on it, and their families.

The following was reposted with permission from an Alberta nurse:

When I try to put my feelings about the UCP into words, I get completely choked. It's a lot to unpack. The level of suffering that we've seen, and will continue to see, because of this government's policies is not only unconstitutional, it's beyond inhumane.

I have worked for the iOAT program for the last year, and it's been cut. With the UCP's purposeful, ignorant opposition to clinically proven harm reduction measures to combat the opioid crisis, I'm not surprised at this outcome.

2020 will be the year for fight back to protect our public health

December 16, 2019 11:59 AM

Seasons Greetings from our Executive Director:

As the holiday season is upon us, we find ourselves reflecting on the past year and the events and changes that impacted us in 2019. This was a big year for FOM as we celebrated 40 years of advocacy. We celebrated all those who came before us; those who, from the inception of FOM, have organized, mobilized and helped to create a force to be reckoned with. We have garnered national recognition, and have over and over stood up to the forces of privatization that seem to return over and over again.

For the past four decades we have had many victories and many setbacks, yet through it all, it has been our conviction and understanding of the importance of public health care that has kept us going, and has strengthened our advocacy. Public health is a re-enforcement of the values that Canadians hold firmly: those of justice and equality.

Currently, Alberta is in a crisis of values. We have a government that has a deep hatred for the social state and public services; a government that celebrates individualism and the move away from the collectivism which embodies the caring and compassion necessary to advance our society. We have already seen the beginning of what seems to be an endless quest to privatize our health care.

Holiday Solidarity from SOS

December 16, 2019 11:57 AM

We are Support Our Students Alberta, also known as SOS Alberta. We are a grassroots public education advocacy organization, and we’d like to send you some holiday wishes for a more equitable, accessible and universal public education in Alberta.

It is incredibly important to us, as a public education advocacy organization to look ahead, to see the writing on the wall, and understand that this government is consistently, and actively trying to limit our access to all public services, to widen inequality and weaken our democracy.

Despite government spin, true intent of health care cuts is clear

December 04, 2019 3:12 PM

In a media article published December 4th, Steve Buick, press secretary for the Minister of Health, could not have been more clear when he explained what is happening to front-line workers:

“Almost three-quarters of all the potential impacts to health care jobs over the next three years is potential use of alternate providers – change of employer, not reduction in jobs overall.”

Lethbridge AGM 2019

November 15, 2019 11:34 AM

Friends of Medicare's Lethbridge chapter held their 2019 AGM on November 13, where we said goodbye to our long-standing president, Michael Cormican and treasurer, Bob Campbell, and elected a whole new board!

The UCP quietly continue ASLI

July 10, 2019 2:40 PM

On July 9th, 2019, without media releases or formal statements, Health Minister Shandro announced on Twitter that the Affordable Supportive Living Initiative (ASLI) will continue under the UCP government. His announcement was made with a photo op at the Silverado Seniors Village, owned by Park Place Seniors Living. This project was one of the 25 ASLI projects that under the previous government were given the green light to proceed after private operators involved in the program agreed to change their designs at the NDP’s caveat that they needed to include higher levels of care including dementia and long-term care units.