Seniors deserve better care in their golden years: Friends of Medicare

The advocacy group points to a 2023 report by Alberta’s former auditor general, Doug Wylie, that stated there was insufficient preparedness, severe staffing shortages, and outdated infrastructure in the system.

“You know, we’ve been calling for years for that to be addressed. We seen some good auditor general reports and other reports that have come out talking about solutions, but instead the government has doubled down on de-regulating care, removing minimum hours, and turning more and more over to ‘for profit’ long-term care companies, rather than investing in public health care.”

The group recently completed a 25-stop tour of Alberta, and Galloway said that seniors’ care was top of mind at every session.

He feels the biggest reason for the failure in seniors care is staffing, referring back to wording contained in the auditor general’s review.

“The vast majority of workers do not have full-time jobs (in home/support care) but it’s part-time work. It’s working two or three jobs to get by. Not having benefits. Not having sick days and we saw the impact through the pandemic, but it’s also impacting (overall) care.”

Galloway said, in response to that, the government went further, removing minimum hours of care contained in legislation and regulations.

He said the end result is some facilities have laid off staff because they can provide the same amount of care with fewer staff.

“We’re hearing of workers on floors at night where they’re the only worker on each floor. So, what happens when some falls? What happens when there’s an incident?”‘

Galloway blames it on, what he calls, a ‘profit motive’ that’s driving long-term and home care in the province to worst care outcomes and a lot of that, he strongly believes, has to do with the working conditions.

“Seniors Week should serve as an urgent reminder to this government that we can, and must, do so much better.”

by Dave Lueneberg

Seniors deserve better care in their golden years: Friends of Medicare

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