It’s about capacity! UNA responds to provincial budget.

The public health care system needs to be strengthened so Alberta nurses and health care workers can deliver the best patient care possible to Albertans. That means increasing capacity so we have enough staff, space and resources for Albertans to access health care when and where they need it.

United Nurses of Alberta remains deeply concerned that the provincial government continues to drastically reorganize the public health care system and throw open the door to the Americanization of health care.

Inviting private companies and private insurance into the health care system will make it more expensive, less efficient, and less reliable for ordinary Albertans.

While Alberta’s population has boomed over the past three decades, the number of hospital beds has decreased from 13,000 in the early 1990s to around 8,000 today. 

With few exceptions, past governments have closed hospitals and closed beds instead of increasing the capacity to keep up with Alberta’s population. The last new hospital in Alberta that was not a replacement structure was opened in Calgary 14 years ago. The last new hospital built in Edmonton was opened almost 40 years ago!

The government should build up the public system we all rely on by investing in health care workers, improving urban hospitals and rural health centres, and keeping our health care public, safe and accessible, no matter your postal code.

The solution is clear: Alberta’s health care system needs investment and it needs capacity.