KENNEY DOES NOTHING AS RURAL HOSPITALS CLOSE BEDS, CANCEL SURGERIES

EDMONTON – Jason Kenney’s government is failing to act as eight rural communities have seen recent service cuts or bed closures at their hospital.

“While Jason Kenney and Tyler Shandro were sipping whisky on the Sky Palace patio and failing to take action, rural Albertans were losing access to healthcare in their community,” said David Shepherd, NDP Critic for Health.

“Jason Kenney is focused on his own internal UCP drama; families and businesses in rural Alberta are being put at risk.”

• Yesterday, the Edson Healthcare Centre announced that six of its 24 acute care beds would be closed until September due to a staff shortage.
• On the same day, the Boyle Healthcare Centre had no doctor in its emergency department for 24 hours.
• In St. Paul, the St. Therese-St. Paul Healthcare Centre is closing 10 of its 30 beds until the end of August. This follows two halts to surgeries in St. Paul, including C-sections, due to a staffing shortage.
• In Elk Point, the hospital’s emergency department will have no doctors in the emergency room on Tuesdays and Thursdays until further notice. The emergency department has been intermittently without doctor coverage over the past month.
• In Galahad, 18 seniors were uprooted from their homes and moved to other communities because of a lack of staffing.
• In Westlock, the hospital was forced to cancel C-sections due to a lack of staffing.
• There were also emergency room closures in the Rocky Mountain House hospital and Fairview hospital over the past month. 

“I’m hearing loud and clear from rural leaders that this UCP government is failing to listen to them and one of their top concerns is a lack of healthcare professionals,” Shepherd said. “Tyler Shandro has been a crashing failure as health minister, and rural communities are bearing the brunt of his failures yet again.”