PrintUNA responds to creation of Cancer Care Alberta
Alberta nurses have more questions than answers about the creation of the new Cancer Care Alberta (CCA) and organ and tissue donation and transplant organizations the government announced today.
It remains unclear how employees and patient care will be impacted after Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange announced the two still-undefined entities would be moved out of Alberta Health Services (AHS) and put under the purview of the Acute Care Alberta (ACA) organization later this year.
“It’s clear that the government is moving full steam ahead with dismantling the health care system without justifications or plans,” said Heather Smith, President of United Nurses of Alberta. “Nurses know that stability is key to providing the best possible patient care, especially in cancer treatment settings.”
According to the government, CCA will oversee cancer health services in Alberta. The government did not say how this will differ from the patient care already provided by nurses and health care workers at Alberta’s dedicated cancer treatment facilities.
UNA also does not know if the nurses working in the new CCA will be employees of CCA, become employees of ACA, or remain employees of AHS.
The government says that organ and tissue donation and transplant services will also move under the purview of ACA, but did not indicate what this will mean for nurses working in these units.
“Nurses fear that the government is proceeding with these plans without answering important questions about how this could create more and more barriers to public scrutiny and transparency,” Smith said. “Albertans should be concerned that this latest restructuring is just another way to make it more difficult to track how public dollars are being spent.”
UNA is also concerned that the government has still not announced where public health nurses fit in the restructuring of the public health care system.
UNA members affected by these changes will remain members of the union and continue to fall under its current Provincial Collective Agreement. UNA will share more information with members as it is received.
