Friends of Medicare are pleased to see that Alberta's Minister of Health Sarah Hoffman has cancelled funding for the Precision Health clinic operated by Pure North after CBC News revealed the clinic had been offering unproven treatment to a patient.
Written by Fom Friends of Medicare
July 12, 2017
Friends of Medicare are pleased to see funding increases of 3.2% which will cover spending pressures in inflation and population growth. Friends of Medicare are also glad to see the government willing to resist wrong headed calls to cutback an already stretched system.
Written by Fom Friends of Medicare
March 16, 2017
Friends of Medicare are applauding Alberta Minister of Health Sarah Hoffman on the introduction of Bill 3, the "Voluntary Blood Donations Act", which aims to protect the voluntary blood and plasma collection system in Alberta by banning the sale of plasma in the province.
Written by Fom Friends of Medicare
March 13, 2017
Toronto/Ottawa/Edmonton:
The Ontario, Quebec and Alberta governments, which had initially held out for better, were compelled to sign onto a bilateral health funding deal with Ottawa today. In the federal election, the Trudeau government promised to break with the high-handed approach of the previous Harper government and negotiate a new Health Accord with the provinces and territories. Instead, after tabling a take-it-or-leave-it offer in December, Trudeau's government walked away from the table. It is now forcing through bilateral deals with each province, containing a funding level that is inadequate to meet the health care needs of Canadians and was rejected by the provinces and territories as inadequate in December. The scheme will reduce the federal government's share of health care funding over the next decade, reversing gains made in the 2004 Health Accord.
Written by Fom Friends of Medicare
March 10, 2017
Canada’s Health Coalitions signed a joint statement and held a media conference today on the recent bilateral health care deals and called for a united health accord.
The statement follows:
Written by Fom Friends of Medicare
February 09, 2017
Family members with loved ones in care in Hinton were joined this morning by Public Interest Alberta Executive Director, Joel French, and Friends of Medicare Executive Director, Sandra Azocar, to call on the provincial government to take action to support Hinton residents in need of long-term care. The community had long-term care beds built by the Good Samaritan Society with government support in 2002, but the PC government in 2005 downgraded the beds to supportive living, and the community has been without long-term care ever since.
Written by Fom Friends of Medicare
December 05, 2016
Sale of Retirement Concepts to Chinese Insurance Company Anbang Would Impact Patients in 2 Calgary Based Supportive Living Centres
Friends of Medicare are calling on governments in Alberta and Ottawa to oppose and reject the sale of Alberta's continuing care in two Calgary supportive living facilities to international investors.
As reported on November 28 in the Globe & Mail multi-billion dollar Chinese based Anbang Insurance Group intends to takeover BC based Retirement Concepts in a bid estimated to be worth over a billion dollars. Retirement Concepts also owns and operates Millrise Place and Monterey Place supportive living facilities in Calgary.
Written by Fom Friends of Medicare
November 30, 2016
Report finds Alberta's continuing care is 79% privatized with no significant improvement since the election of the NDP Government.
Friends of Medicare are calling on the Alberta Government to recommit to their election promise to create "2,000 public long-term care beds over four years" in light of damning evidence provided in today's Parkland Institute "Losing Ground: Alberta's Residential Elder Care Crisis" report on long-term care in Alberta. Further steps should be reviewed and taken to phase out private continuing care entirely, in keeping with their election promise to "end the PCs' costly experiments in privatization, and redirect the funds to publicly delivered services."
Written by Fom Friends of Medicare
October 25, 2016
Friends of Medicare are elated to hear reports that Alberta Health Services intends to purchase private lab services company Dynalife for $50 million in 2022 when its new 5 year contract expires.
Written by Fom Friends of Medicare
September 30, 2016
Friends of Medicare are calling on the Government of Alberta to take steps to fix a broken continuing care system in light of today's news that Points West Living have served notice to lockout their staff in Cold Lake as of September 29.
Written by Fom Friends of Medicare
September 26, 2016