EDMONTON – About 20 people are getting laid off from Alberta Hospital, Alberta Health Services (AHS) confirmed on Wednesday afternoon. The layoffs come as a result of one of the units being scaled back, and another being shut down altogether.
The first is an in-patient unit that has up until now been providing around-the-clock-care for voluntary mental health patients who struggle to function in the community on their own. In the coming months, the unit will become a Monday to Friday day program. The 20 to 30 patients currently treated there will be sent back into the community every night and weekend – something that AHS says most of the patients already choose to do.
The nursing and clerical positions will be eliminated within the next few months.
It’s a move that’s being met with a lot of backlash from the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE), which represents about half of the staff affected by the layoffs.
“These patients are in this program because they need 24/7 care,” says AUPE president Guy Smith. “Many live in group homes where, for any number of reasons, they’re not coping and need to go somewhere where they can stabilize. Now that’s being taken away from them.”
The AUPE is afraid that these changes are just the beginning of further cuts.
“The Redford government needs to rethink this decision. It’s a blueprint for disaster,” says Smith.
The other change in store for the Alberta Hospital is the closure of the Centre for Psychiatric Assessment. AHS says the program is being shut down due to outdated testing techniques.
“That program was designed a long time ago with very innovative and new testing for mental health patients. And over the years, the testing for mental health patients has changed.” explains Dr. David Mador on behalf of Alberta Health Services (AHS). “The majority of the tests that are offered in that program are no longer approved testing, and there are better ways of doing that. So they no longer meet approval from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Alberta.”
“We want to make sure that we maintain quality and we want to make sure that we use our health care dollars the best way that we can,” Mador maintains. “We think that there are better ways to deliver the care that we’re delivering now. And at the same time, save some money.”
He adds that the staff members whose jobs are eliminated, will be placed elsewhere within AHS.
Alberta’s Health Minister Fred Horne and the Canadian Mental Health Association turned down requests for comment.
The news of changes at Alberta Hospital comes on the heels of a province-wide grievance filed by the United Nurses of Alberta against AHS, demanding the agency reverse all recent layoffs and stop future layoffs.
The grievance was submitted to AHS Monday.
With files from Su-Ling Goh, Global News
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