Winter has arrived while a record number of Albertans are living unhoused or without stable housing. The combination of cold weather and a lack of housing are already adding totally preventable pressures on to our hospitals, emergency services and health care system.
“The temperature has dropped and thousands of Albertans are living outside due to a lack of housing. Our governments should be treating this as the public health crisis that it is and acting urgently to address it,” said Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare. “What’s happening now was totally predictable and preventable. Winter comes every year, so it should surprise no one that leaving so many folks with nowhere to go has left them at risk, leading to worsening health outcomes and increased demand on our already strained health care system.”
Four people in Edmonton were recently found dead in bus shelters, while the last two winters saw record frostbite amputations in Edmonton operating rooms, with the vast majority of the patients being unhoused. Patients are often discharged from these surgeries without stable housing, leading to poor outcomes in terms of aftercare and rehabilitation, and in many cases a return to the hospital system. A pattern that appears to already be repeating itself this winter.
“The cold weather has only just begun and we are already hearing upsetting stories about frostbite amputation surgeries happening in our Operating Rooms. These amputations are traumatic both for the patients experiencing them and the health care workers dealing with a wave of what they know are totally preventable cold weather injuries. How is this acceptable in such a wealthy province?” said Gallaway. “Housing is health care. Our Premier needs an urgent plan to tackle the housing crisis and to get people sheltered from the cold. And all levels of government need to work together to make it happen.”
For years, Friends of Medicare has been calling on the provincial government to take the growing risk extreme weather poses to Albertans' health seriously by implementing pro-active plans to protect people and our public health care system. Crucial to these plans must be a strategy to keep people housed and protected from the impacts of both extreme heat and extreme winter weather.
“Housing is a key determinant of health. Without housing it’s nearly impossible for an individual to remain healthy,” said Gallaway. “But if caring for our neigbours isn’t enough motivation for our government to act, they should look at their bottom line. Because we know that poverty costs. Housing Albertans is a whole heck of a lot cheaper than what we are currently doing, which is allowing homelessness to be treated through our emergency departments, operating rooms and public health care system.”