Our government is standing by while emergency rooms become overrun, ambulance wait times put lives at risk, and delays in treatment cause complications that strain the system even further. By underpaying and overworking workers, the government is driving staff shortages and causing burnout among the health-care workers who remain.
We need to give health-care workers what they need to do their jobs.
It’s time to demand better. Together, we can advocate for a strategy to recruit and retain the health-care workers we desperately need to keep our public system operational.
Here’s how:
- Keep health care publicly-funded and strengthen public delivery.
- Implement a provincial workforce strategy to recruit and retain healthcare workers.
- Respect the important work of health-care professionals by increasing their wages appropriately.
- Ensure equitable access to health care for small and rural and small communities.
- Provide a minimum of 4 hours of direct care a day for seniors in long-term care facilities as per expert consensus.
The Alberta Government is sitting on a record surplus. We have the resources to invest in solutions. But instead of working to solve the crisis, our leaders are actively working to dismantle our public health-care system.
To save our public health-care system, Alberta needs to pursue a provincial health workforce strategy and collaborate on a national plan to improve working conditions, recruitment, and retention of health-care workers. This must include system-wide supports for healthcare workers who are experiencing and/or are at risk of burnout and trauma.
Workers are demanding an end to the underfunding, lack of respect, and political hostility that our government is directing towards public health care in Alberta. Together, let’s demand better.
Demand better. Email your candidates.