Tories ignoring need for long-term care (by Bal S. Boora)

Tories ignoring need for long-term care
Written by Bal S. Boora
Thursday, 20 August 2009
I felt heartache after reading the story of a retired farmer in Strathmore, Niels Bach, whose wife was placed in a long-term care facility in Vulcan, nearly 100 kilometres away from home.
According to an Aug. 6 story in the Calgary Herald, Mr. Bach, now 77, spoke out at a gathering last year where Premier Ed Stelmach was present. Mr. Stelmach promised there and then that the long-awaited facility would be built “as quickly as possible” to alleviate Strathmore’s shortage of long-term care beds.
A year and a half later, things have changed from bad to worse. The premier’s hand-picked superboard is not sure what it would build in Strathmore. It is also changing its mind in Calgary’s Garrison Green Care Centre that was promised during the election as a long-term care (LTC) facility. All Alberta communities are in the same predicament from Fort McMurray to Lethbridge. It’s clear the Alberta government has broken its promises to our seniors to provide the long-awaited facilities.
The Tory government has put Alberta’s health-care system in disorder. The superboard appears to be focusing only on Designated Assisted Living (DAL) facilities which are suitable only for those seniors who need some supervision to live their lives comfortably. There are no RNs available in these types of facilities.
However, the need for LTC capacity is not gone, it’s just that the government is changing its policy in the middle of its mandate and is chronically behind in building the needed LTC facilities. They appear to be in crisis mode once again and they hope the citizens will buy their implication that because the economy is in recession, Alberta does not have the funds needed to build these facilities. They would hope that by the next election, Albertans will forget all about it.
Alberta’s seniors deserve better. They have paid their dues in the past. They shouldn’t have to tolerate the incompetence on the part of the Tory government. The provincial government has collected unprecedented wealth in the last 36 years. They have squandered most of it.
I believe Alberta needs more long-term care beds right now. I urge all citizens to send a clear message to the Stelmach government by calling 310-0000, then 780-427-2251.
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