EDMONTON — Canada’s Premiers held a joint press conference today demanding more money from the federal government with no performance measures, targets or strings attached.

Thousands of kids are sick in this province and across Canada, putting unprecedented strain on our hospitals. Yet rather than responding to calls for action from the AMA Pediatrics section, health care workers, advocates, and families here in Alberta, Premier Smith instead joined other Premiers from across the country to ask for more money from the federal government.

EDMONTON — Today, the majority of Alberta’s community medical laboratory services are being transitioned from being publicly delivered by Alberta Precision Laboratories, to being delivered by DynaLIFE, a for-profit company. This follows the delayed attempt to transition services this past July. Friends of Medicare has been outspoken about the significant issues involved in contracting out our lab services, and other integral parts of our public health care system, every step of the way. 

EDMONTON — Friends of Medicare and concerned Albertans will be holding an information picket outside of Canadian Blood Services (CBS) in Edmonton at noon today, December 1. This action coincides with events being held outside of CBS locations in Ottawa, ON, Dartmouth, NS and elsewhere.

EDMONTON — This afternoon, Danielle Smith tabled her first Speech from the Throne as Premier. It promises disappointingly little in terms of protecting and improving Alberta’s public health care, continues to push an agenda of privatization, and provides no indication as to how the government plans to repair the damage they have wreaked on Alberta’s public health care system. 

This afternoon, the Premier announced that she has fired the Alberta Health Services (AHS) board and will be replacing them with a full-time administrator tasked with making further reforms.

EDMONTON -- As per their mandate, Alberta Health Services is “subject to the direction of, and the resources provided by, the Minister of Health.” Yet, blaming AHS has long served as a convenient means of deflection for the government. 

The mandate letters from Premier Smith to the Ministers of Health, Mental Health and Addiction, and Seniors, Community and Social Services have been released to the public.

EDMONTON -- The mandate letter to the Minister of Health prioritizes ideological pet projects like the Premier’s promised health spending accounts, and posits restructuring at Alberta Health Services as the solution to our health care challenges. Not addressed are the most urgent issues facing our public health care system: the drastic rise in respiratory illnesses, and the ongoing staffing crisis.

Red Deer Emergency Room wait time of 18 hours is the latest of many crises facing our health care system

Tomorrow the UCP will elect a new leader, and thus a new Premier for Alberta. This is happening at a time when our public health care system is facing a series of overlapping crises, and doctors, health care workers and Albertans have been increasingly vocal on the urgent need for immediate action.

OTTAWA (the traditional and unceded territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin people) - Canada’s provincial and territorial Health Coalitions and the Canadian Health Coalition call for the resignation of the leadership of the Canadian Blood Services (CBS) including the CEO and Board of Directors. This call comes after the appalling decision by CBS to sign a 15-year agreement with a for-profit international pharmaceutical firm to collect plasma.

Today, Jason Kenney and Health Minister Jason Copping announced that they were expanding private chartered surgeries in Alberta, and that Alberta Health Services has released two Request for Proposals (RFP) for contractors to open two private surgical facilities in the province. 

“This has never been about improving access or expanding capacity,” says Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare. “This government has shown over and over that their myopic pursuit of supposed 'savings' will always trump what’s best for patients and their families. At the end of the day, this is about securing more profits for private health care operators.”

When negotiations are concluded, Alberta Health Services will go from contracting out 40% of retail food services in Calgary and Edmonton to 100%.