Provincial union says private hospital laundry services failing in big way

By ANNA SMITH Local Journalism Initiative on April 26, 2025.

asmith@medicinehatnews.com

Members of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees claim that privatized laundry services have resulted in lowered quality of care, and worry for the future of hospitals.

AUPE members and other health-care workers report that gowns, sheets and rags are often soiled or filled with used needles, said AUPE, with soiled sheets or lost valuables as the “new norm in Alberta hospitals.”

“Some staff have even reported finding dentures and used diapers in supposedly clean linens,” says Curtis Jackson, AUPE vice-president and chair of the union’s Anti-Privatization Committee.

“Health care works when we focus on quality, not profits,” said Jackson. “Health care staff and patients across the province experience the awful reality of for-profit laundry services first hand. Albertans deserve a higher standard of health care, which can only be achieved through public ownership and accountability.”

AUPE members expressed concerns that continued relationships with Trump officials and allies in the United States will inspire a further “Americanized” health-care system, after how former premier Jason Kenney’s government officially privatized all publicly-operated hospital laundry services in late 2021 and into 2022, followed by AHS food services in 2023.

“Taking publicly-delivered health services out of the public domain and awarding them as contracts to private corporations has consistently cost our province and everyday Albertans more while providing lower quality and diminished outcomes,” said Jackson.

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