NEWS PHOTO GILLIAN SLADE Nurses pace the sidewalk outside Medicine Hat Regional Hospital on Thursday to raise awareness of the provincial government's plans to make changes to health care and the compensation for frontline health care staff.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade
Nurses paced the sidewalk outside Medicine Hat Regional Hospital on Thursday to sound the alarm about changes the government is planning for health care.
“I don’t think depleting health-care workers, especially the frontline staff … should be the target,” said Megan Eggins, acting president of Local 70 United Nurses of Alberta.
The union is in the middle of contract negotiations, and Eggins says the government appears to want to roll back agreements put in place 20 years ago. While the government is saying there will be no decrease in wages they want to decrease shift differentials and what would traditionally have been given to recognize the added responsibility of being a nurse in charge of a unit.
The Ernst and Young review of Alberta Health Services lists several potential changes that is adding to the anxiety, said Eggins. During the provincial election the UCP said it would not target frontline services and while it is true many of the job losses will be through attrition, it feels as though frontlines are being targeted.
“There’s animosity and that fear of what’s going to happen, uncertainty of the future, which is really concerning,” said Eggins.
Drew Barnes, MLA for Cypress-Medicine Hat, says nurses should not feel targeted.
“Nurses are one of the cornerstones of a good public health system,” said Barnes.
Premier Jason Kenney’s government is looking at significant reforms to health care and changes to compensation for nurses and health-care workers.
Eggins says the public should be concerned as well because cuts are already taking place that will impact health-care delivery.
She says medical staff are well educated and did not directly benefit from the boom times in the oil and gas industry.
“It’s not like we’re expecting huge raises or anything like that. Asking us to roll back for stuff that we’ve fought so long for our profession is degrading,” said Eggins.
Similar rallies were held in locations across the province.
The UNA, which represents 29,000 nurses, has proposed a two per cent wage hike in each of the first two years along with other changes.
The E&Y accountants’ report says registered nurses make on average just over $94,000 a year, about seven per cent more than the Canadian average, but by working extra shifts and with other premium pay can earn substantially more.
It found two-thirds of registered nurses are casual or part time and that this high number, coupled with attendant pay and scheduling benefits, is not cost-effective and causes scheduling problems.
It claims Alberta has higher nursing staffing levels than comparable jurisdictions and that highly skilled staff are being used in situations where less skilled staff would do, such as keeping watch on at-risk patients.
— with files from The Canadian Press
