Alberta’s nurses warn that new provincial regulations will eliminate any legal requirement for continuing care operators to provide nursing care to residents.
Last month, the province published a new Continuing Care Act Regulations that are supposed to take effect on April 1. The regulations do not mention a minimum number of required hours of nursing care.
“We are moving to zero hours of care. This is extremely dangerous,” said Heather Smith, United Nurses of Alberta president, in a statement.
“We have already read in the news about a case of a stroke patient sent to recover alone in a motel in Leduc. I fear that the change in regulations means this is only a harbinger of things to come.”
Ontario just increased the requirement for care for each patient to four hours per day, she added.
Previous Alberta legislation required continuing care home operators to provide an average of at least 1.9 hours of nursing and personal care per day, of which 22 per cent had to be provided by a registered nurse or registered psychiatric nurse.
Smith said while that was clearly inadequate, at least there was a minimum legal standard.
She said the government appears to be trying to permit larger numbers of workers without health care qualifications, or only very limited and targeted training, to work in continuing care.
The UNA is also concerned the new regulations allow broad exemptions to the watered-down rules governing continuing care facility operations without public transparency or meaningful oversight. There is also no requirement for names of continuing care operators who apply for exemptions to be published anywhere.
A statement from Andrea Smith, press secretary with the Ministry of Health, said Ontario is the only other province with minimum hours set in legislation so Alberta is aligned with policies elsewhere, including British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
“During consultation with operators, workers and residents we heard that changes were needed to provide better flexibility and to allow for operators to develop staffing plans to meet the unique needs of their residents,” Smith said.
It is also important to note that there are still minimum staffing requirements, she added.
“Our government is committed to supporting health care workers while ensuring Albertans are receiving the care they need, when and where they need it. The previous 1.9 minimum average of direct care hours was outdated and has not been updated since 1985. The fact is, in Alberta we fund continuing care homes to provide an average of 3.62 worked care hours per resident per day.”
The Alberta NDP is also demanding that the UCP government restore a minimum hours-of-care standard to the new Continuing Care Act Regulations.
“This is clear, new evidence that the UCP plans to reduce the quality of care received by seniors and the accountability for that care,” said Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley.
“The regulation must be amended to include a minimum number of hours of care, and that minimum number of hours should be increased. There is no reason this should be dropped.”