Government rules allowed private, for-profit facility to evict senior in stable condition

An Alberta family is demanding answers from the Conservative government after their mother, a long-term-care patient in stable condition, was dumped at a hospital emergency room by a private care-home operator.

“We are appalled that our 80-year-old mother was treated liked a commodity instead of being treated with the respect and dignity that all Albertans deserve,” says Beth Podgurny, of St. Albert.

“Within days of our mother moving in, the private, for-profit home in which she was living began asking us for more money, but when we told them they should stick to the terms of the contract that we had only recently signed, they responded with an eviction notice,” says Podgurny.

“The fact that there appears to be nothing under provincial rules to prevent this is mind-boggling. It just goes to show that the privatization solution that Premier Alison Redford is pushing to address long-term-care issues isn’t the answer for vulnerable Albertans.”

Podgurny and other members of her family will hold a media conference Wednesday to call on the government for answers about the long-term-care crisis, and to ask why they have had no answer from Health and Wellness Minister Fred Horne and Seniors Minister George VanderBurg nearly two months after writing to them seeking a public inquiry into long-term care.

Other speakers at the media conference:

• Bill Moore-Kilgannon, executive director, Public Interest Alberta
• Noel Somerville, chair of the PIA Seniors Task Force

TIME: 10:00 a.m., Wednesday, March 14, 2012.

LOCATION: River Valley Room, Crowne Plaza Chateau Lacombe, 10111 Bellamy Hill, Edmonton.

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MEDIA CONTACT:

• Bill Moore-Kilgannon, 780-993-3736