$34.4 billion in total health-care spending<\/a>, \u201cincluding $1.9 billion in new health funding, to address Albertans\u2019 priorities including reducing wait times across emergency services, surgeries and cancer care.\u201d<\/p>\nHowever, Azocar criticized the provincial government, saying she believes there has been a lack of action when it comes to addressing overarching issues that drive people to seek care at a hospital even when it may not be an ideal place to go for treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you see an increase in homelessness and mental health issues, the hospitals become the place where people go,\u201d Azocar said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd yet, that’s not recognized in terms of a holistic way of approaching some of the issues that are the mitigating factors that are impacting violence in our health-care system.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
CBC News asked the provincial government about the concerns raised by unions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAlberta\u2019s health-care workforce is at record levels and has grown 36 per cent since 2019, more than twice the rate of population growth,\u201d Maddison McKee, press secretary for Hospital and Surgical Health Services, wrote in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlberta has more than 14,000 physicians, nearly 50,000 registered nurses, more than 20,000 licensed practical nurses and almost 40,000 health-care aides working across the province. We’re also investing $7.7 billion this year in physician recruitment, training and compensation to grow Alberta\u2019s physician workforce \u2014 an increase of 22 per cent.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
McKee added that through the Alberta Recovery Model, the government is investing in a full continuum of mental health and addiction care, alongside an additional $30 million for community health centres in Edmonton and Calgary that bring together primary care, mental health and addiction services, housing navigation and other supports.<\/p>\n
What needs to change?<\/p>\n
Another immediate concern for the AUPE, HSAA as well as the United Nurses of Alberta (UNA) is identifying and preventing weapons from entering medical facilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The UNA has been calling for the urgent installation of weapons detection systems in hospital emergency departments that are identified as facing weapons-related risks.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton began screening patients and visitors for weapons before they enter its emergency department. The Royal Alexandra Hospital implemented weapons screening in May following the stabbing at that facility earlier in the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The UNA has also called on the provincial government to update its hazard identification, assessment and control document to reflect the realities currently facing health-care workers and to generally implement measures that will ensure staff safety.<\/p>\n
AHS provided CBC News with a statement that said the health authority takes all concerns related to harassment and violence seriously.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs partners in care, protective services helps maintain the safety of patients, visitors, staff and health-care facilities so that high-quality care can be delivered to Albertans,\u201d the statement reads. \u201cAlberta allocates more than $130 million annually to AHS protective services, an increase of $11 million from 2024-25.\u201d<\/p>\n
AHS added that 175 protective services staff were added through the province\u2019s enhanced health-care security initiative, with a particular focus on supporting rural Alberta.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThese resources complement the 637 AHS peace officers and 561 contracted security guards currently working across the province to strengthen safety in health-care facilities,\u201d AHS said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the University of Alberta Hospital, Alberta Health Services has also increased the number of protective services personnel on site from five to 10. These staff are present at all times and support the hospital\u2019s weapon-screening program, helping ensure a safer environment for patients, visitors and staff.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both the HSAA and the AUPE said while they acknowledge the work being done, they believe more action needs to be taken.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s unfortunate it did take as long as it did at the Royal Alexandra Hospital,\u201d Alfaro said about the implementation of that facility\u2019s weapons detection system.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know from our members and such sitting on the joint workplace health and safety committees in those hospitals, that these incidences of violence in emergency departments have been significant and getting worse and worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alfaro added that she believes employers also bear responsibility for what is happening and should be held to a higher standard.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur legislation should be stronger to ensure [a safe workplace] occurs and that the employers abide by it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Azocar said she believes a culture of normalizing violence has been allowed to exist.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAn injury to one is an injury to all, and we need to make sure that we stop normalizing violence against workers in this area,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe system needs to care for them if we want to continue to retain people at work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New data obtained by CBC News suggests violence against health-care workers is a growing problem in Alberta.\u00a0 The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":909238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":["post-909237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=909237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/909238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}