Nurses demand answers from AHS about staffing changes

EDMONTON – United Nurses of Alberta (UNA) says its president Heather Smith has written a letter to Alberta Health Services (AHS) demanding answers as to “why Registered Nurses are being laid off at Alberta health facilities.”

In a letter to AHS President and CEO Chris Eagle, Smith asked to immediately see a list of all the layoffs, position eliminations and previously posted positions that will be unfilled, “affecting nurses represented by UNA since April 1, 2013.”

It’s also requesting AHS disclose changes it expects to make within the next year along with the amount of money AHS believes it will save as a result of the staffing changes.

The UNA statement, posted on its website May 13, reads:

“UNA is extremely concerned by the pace and extent of the changes that are being revealed on a piecemeal basis. These changes have an impact on the working lives of UNA members and their ability to deliver safe quality health services to Albertans.”

“We worry whether there’s an overall plan,” explained David Harrigan, UNA’s director of Labour Relations, Wednesday. “It seems that on an ad-hoc, day-by-day basis, more announcements are being made. There was a transitional unit at the Royal Alex was closed and people received position elimination, down in Calgary there was palliative home care, there was another transition unit at the Rockyview Hospital, just this morning, in fact I was told about Bashaw was now officially closing the facility there, and there’s downsizing at Three Hills. It seems like every day we just get more little bits of information. It worries us because it appears like there’s no overall plan.”

In March, the UNA spoke out after nursing staff at the Stollery Children’s Hospital were notified of impending layoffs. Smith believed AHS would continue to replace RNs with other nursing staff.

“Licensed Practical Nurses are skilled professionals as well, but they are a different category than Registered Nurses, and that’s a concern. It’s substitution with – although skilled – a lesser skilled individual than the Registered Nurses who are currently providing the services in these areas.”

AHS confirmed 12 RNs were being laid off, along with one LPN and one Nursing Attendant.  AHS said the decision was not budget-related, but rather it was restructuring staffing to meet current demands.

Wednesday, a spokesperson for AHS addressed the issue once again.

“In some instances, we are replacing RNs with LPNs, but it is not a ‘de-skilling’,” explains Kerry Williamson.

“In some cases, we have RNs being kept busy with work that LPNs could be doing. By replacing them with LPNs, that then allows the RNs to work to their full scope of practice.”

He explains sometimes AHS will be using LPNs, but says they are fully trained for the roles they fulfill. “To say they are ‘lesser trained’ is unfair.”

“We want to have RNs doing the work of RNs, LPNs doing the work of LPNs and Healthcare Aides doing the work of Healthcare Aides – in other words, their full scope of practice.”

“Yes, in some cases, we are making changes to staffing, which will see better, more appropriate use of our resources. This is good for patients, and good for staff,” he told Global News.

However, Harrigan stresses the changes will impact patient care.

“Health care in Alberta is provided on a continuum; there’s specialists, there’s General Practitioners, there’s Nurse Practitioners, there’s Registered Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses, and Aids. It important the right person be providing the care, but it’s not just as easy as saying ‘let’s get the cheapest person providing the care.’”

Harrigan estimates 60 RN positions have been eliminated in the last couple of months.

“There’s a reduction in two ways: one is they’re actually eliminating positions. So at the Stollery, a number of nurses got letters saying ‘your position is eliminated,’ and that position is then gone . The other thing that’s happening is as people retire and resign, the positions aren’t being posted.”

AHS has also closed nine Medicine Program inpatient beds at the Royal Alexandra hospital.

Williamson says the beds haven’t been used since January, and AHS closed them because they were no longer being used efficiently.

He also says the unit has functioned successfully without the nine beds since January, so AHS is confident that closing the nine beds will not impact patient care.

“The actual closure means that 10 positions were eliminated, however, after the January closure, staff were temporarily assigned to other Medicine units,” he adds. “They will now be permanently assigned positions within AHS.”

Williamson stresses there were no job losses.

He adds that – as in the case of the Royal Alexandra nurses – RNs will be rehired in other programs on other sites “in almost all cases.”

“Unfortunately, because of their contracts, we need to lay them off in order to place them in a different program or site.”

UNA continues to wait for a response to Smith’s letter to AHS for clarification.

“Our relationship has been reasonably good over the last couple of years,” says Harrigan. “We’re a little bit surprised, with what’s happening, that we haven’t heard anything. And so, Heather Smith, our president, wrote to Dr. Eagle asking ‘could you please advise?’ and we haven’t even received a response. We haven’t even received an acknowledgement of the letter, which is very concerning.”

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