Healthy Debate

July is here, and I hope you all enjoyed a happy Canada Day. 

Most members will be going on some hard earned Rest and Relaxation (assuming you can get the time off).  I hope that you will have a great time connecting with family and friends, and just getting away from the incredible demands that the system you work for puts on you.  Recharge the batteries, remind yourselves that there is more to life than work.

I am heading out for the adventure of a lifetime which has been dubbed ‘Ride for Africa’ www.rideforafrica.org, in support of a local group named ‘Hands Across Africa’ .  I will be joining an intrepid group of adventurers to climb Africa’s tallest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro, in July, and while we are at it, to raise funds for two grassroots projects. One is a rehabilitation centre in Sierra Leone, which has been helping the victims of the terrible civil war, in which rebels chopped off limbs of civilians – men, women and children. The second is the Amani home for street children in Moshi, Tanzania, which provided a roof, food, and vocational training to children who have no other means of support.

Two adventurers, Axel and Mike, are already underway, having started their trek on motorcycles at the Glenrose Hospital in Edmonton on April 20. Hence the name Ride for Africa.  The rest of the group will connect with them in Moshi, at the foot of the mountain, and on July 17, I hope to make it to the summit.

Hands Across Africa was started by a group of Health Professionals who are also members of HSAA. Some of them worked as volunteers in Africa, and that was the motivation to do more. They work in partnership with Change for Children, a registered charity that looks after the administrative details.  This is the second organized climb of Kilimanjaro, and in total, Hands across Africa has raised over $120,000since 2005.  I am thrilled to be joining this year’s effort, which is made all the more meaningful by the fact that it is initiated by HSAA members. 

Many thanks to our amazing staff and our board of directors.  You are in good hands in my absence.

With luck I will make it to the top, and hope to take a picture with the HSAA flag!

Wishing all of you a fabulous summer! 

Elisabeth

HSAA members and other residents of Medicine Hat may have a hard time believing that we are supposed to have a semi-arid climate.  Over the past 15 years, the city has seen flooding at least three times. 

Once again, Mother Nature has packed a wallop, flooding homes, washing out roads and bridges and either drowning crops or preventing farmers from seeding in the first place in southern Alberta.

One of the benefits of belonging to a union is that we support each other, and this is one of those times where membership makes a difference. 

Members who have been affected by the floods in southern Alberta may be eligible to access the HSAA Members’ Assistance Fund.  This fund is available to members affected by emergencies.  While funding is not automatic, members who meet the criteria may be eligible for a grant of  up to $2000.  An application form can be downloaded from the membership services page of the HSAA web site. 

Our thoughts and best wishes to all as you deal with the clean-up. 

Elisabeth

This morning I led a small HSAA delegation to meet with the Minister’s Advisory Committee on Health (MACH), which is doing a comprehensive review of Alberta’s health legislation.  The committee, chaired by MLA Fred Horne, is meeting with ’stakeholders’ to gather input.  (UNA, CUPE and AUPE were also part of this consultation meeting, and The unions were in full agreement on virtually all issues.)

We emphasized to the committee the HSAA position on health care that supports not only the principles of the Canada Health Act(universality, accessibility, comprehensiveness, portability and public administration), but also the public provision of care.  At the same time, we stressed that while we prefer public delivery, we take the position that the people doing the work deserve union representation just like every other worker, and that we will not hesitate to bring them into our union if they currently work for a private provider.  And we will certainly fight to follow them to a private provider if services are contracted out!

A key concern is that a new Act may simply be a broad ‘enabling’ statute, that provides some very broad strokes, and then allows the Minister to fill in the detail with regulations.  Regulations can be changedwithout any debate in the Legislature, and potentially without either notice or consultation.  Given statements by government and AHS CEO Stephen Duckett, it is clear that further privatization has not been ruled out, in spite of the HRG bankruptcy.

A lesson to learn – for-profit companies buy a building at firesale prices, then get contracts to do surgeries for more money than it costs in the private system, and do not have to provide the emergency care when things go wrong.  Their shareholders earn dividends, the leaders earn big salaries, and when the thing goes belly up, we the taxpayer get to pay even more to ensure that patients get their surgeries.  Does this make sense for your tax dollar?

I also raised the ongoing staff shortages, the fact that positions either drop off the face of the earth when they become vacant, or get bottlenecked in the Kafka-esque ‘vacancy management process (which may now be named something else).  Shifting anyone to the private sector does not provide more services in total, in fact it may lead to less access.

Long-term care was raised by several participants.  I reminded the committee that changing a name (continuing Care to ‘Assisted Daily Living”doesn’t make a long term care patient more independent, it just switches costs of care to their pockets.

We also spoke about the desireability to ensure that all professionals work to their full scope of practice, and that we shouldn’t necessarily need to see a physician to get a referral.  In this iday of computers and ‘help lines’, we should surely be able to develop some decision making tools that will take us directly to the most appropriate professional.  At the same time, UNA Vice President Bev Dick urged that in shifting care to other disciplines, we need to look at the whole picture, rather than fragmenting tasks just to download them to less expensive workers.

This consultation follows a similar meeting on Tuesday with Lloyd Snelgrove, President of the Treasury Board,  about the next budget.  Here we again emphasized public helath care, but also urged the Treasury Board to consider the longer term when planning budgets, and to look at the revenue side of the ledger, and to avoid the mantra of tax cuts at any cost.  We get the public services we need by paying our taxes. Interestingly, even a representative of the oil industry made this point, though he wanted the government to consider a sales tax to fund public services.

I know of at least two members who have been confirmed to participate in the “MACH” meetings, and would encourage every one of you to provide your perpsectives.  Simply go to the Governmetn of Alberta’s web site and follow the icon to ‘Your Alberta Health Act’

Wishing you a fine weekend, now that the sun is shining (at least for the moment!).

Elisabeth