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.

Canada's Health Coalitions Call for a United Health Accord

Federal Government Must Return to the Negotiation Table

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:

Hinton needs long-term care now

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.

Alberta and Ottawa Must Reject Sale of Continuing Care to Chinese Investment Company

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.

Parkland Report Confirms NDP Falling Short on Long-Term Care Promise

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."

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. 

Cold Lake Continuing Care Lockout Another Sign of a Broken System

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.

Today at the steps of the Alberta Legislature, Alberta Minister of Health Sarah Hoffman was presented with a SumOfUs petition with over 15,000 signatures calling on provincial Health Ministers to "implement legislation that ensures no for-profit, donor-paid blood plasma collection clinics are allowed to operate in Canada."