On May 26th, 2014 Alberta Human Services advised families of the remaining residents at Michener Centre in Red Deer that starting June 1, 2014, the severely developmentally disabled residents of Michener Center will not be receiving nursing care on weekends and statutory holidays. Staff working with residents will have to access health links, the nearest walk-in clinic, or hospital to assist residents.
"The moral test of a government is how they treat our most vulnerable - those who are in the dawn of life, the children, the elderly, the sick, and the needy," says Sandra Azocar, Executive Director of Friends of Medicare. "This government continues to provide examples of how they fail over and over again to pass this most basic test."
Since March 2013 the province has been in the process of closing the 90-year-old Michener Centre and forcing its residents to move into community group homes or seniors' facilities.
"Withholding appropriate and timely medical services from the current residents is a cruel way to expedite a process that was put forward without consultation with the families of the residents of Michener Centre," adds Azocar.
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