EDMONTON — Yesterday afternoon, the Premier and her Minister of Assisted Living and Social Services held a large news conference simply to announce that they are launching a navigation portal for those seeking to access continuing care and assisted living options in Alberta.
“More easily accessible information for Albertans seeking to navigate continuing care in Alberta is important. But equally important is what care they are navigating to,” said Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare. “We have structural problems in continuing care in Alberta, including a lack of capacity, an ongoing short-staffing crisis, the deregulation of minimum care standards and an increase in complaints about care.”
Two 2023 reports from the Auditor General confirmed how badly we are failing Alberta seniors living in continuing care facilities, citing "severe care staffing shortages” as a major contributor. Yet, the government has refused to adopt new National Long-Term Care Standards, and have since removed mandated minimum hours of care per resident per day.
As per the Protection for Persons in Care (PPC) 2023-2024 report, the number of cases of abuse in continuing care facilities more than tripled compared to the previous year. Yet the provincial government has ignored calls to bring back a dedicated independent Seniors’ Advocate to support seniors navigating care.
“There is no better indictment of the impacts of fragmentation and privatization of health care than what’s happened to continuing care in Alberta. The result has unequivocally been more costs to patients and families, while becoming harder and harder to navigate and access care,” said Gallaway. “Albertans have seen this over and over: when the profit motive comes first, and the quality of care is deregulated, patients suffer. This government should be working to bolster care standards and coordinate our public health care system so that patients have one access point to get the appropriate care that they need, when and where they need it.”
Friends of Medicare continues to call on Albertans to take action for improved Continuing Care and properly supported Home Care.
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