Another letter send to Premier Kenney on Alberta Healthcare

 November 4, 2020

Dear Honourable Jason Kenney, Premier of Alberta. 

I am writing to you again to express and bring you my concerns on the decisions you have been making to Alberta’s healthcare system since your tenure began. I had originally wrote and emailed you on August 28, 2020 regarding healthcare concerns. Plus you were cc’d on a letter I had written and emailed to Ministry of Health, Tyler Shandro on July 28, 2020. Then I resent the original emails on September 28, 2020 and September 25, 2020 respectively. None of these emails have been returned with your comments. Needlessly to say it is disappointing and disrespectful to not have received any repliesfrom you both. Time and energy are put in all my letters. You see Premier Kenney, I am a quadriplegic from a debilitating disease called Guillian Barre Syndrome (GBS), which has left to use a mouth stick for communication which it allows me to type every letter of every word. Therefore, it is not uncommon to spend 4 or more hours on a letter. As our healthcare is important to me, I am willing to put in the time and energy to express my concerns and opinions. 

When you were campaigning in 2019 and during your tenure as Premier of Alberta, you and your UCP government have made promises, commitments and guaranteed acts to the Alberta citizens. As your promises and commitments differ from former Premier Rachel Notley, you were able to sway citizens to your party who believed in the promises were for good days ahead once elected. Premier Kenney, you told us what we wanted to hear in that moment in time, early 2019, and we fell for it hook, line and sinker. 

You promised the Alberta citizens; 

1. By signing a Public Health Guarantee before the election in 2019, guaranteeing that you and your UCP government will maintain or increase healthcare funding as well as support an universal national public healthcare system in Alberta. Was that just a photo opportunity to sway votes your way, knowing you would never follow through on which you guaranteed to Albertans? 

2. You did give us notice that healthcare costs are too high, so cuts will need to be made BUT no frontline healthcare professionals jobs & positions will be cut. You told us as your government will not be cutting frontline healthcare professionals, therefore ALL Albertans will see that we can continue to receive the high quality of healthcare we have been receiving over the past  decades before. 

3. You and your UCP government members have repeatedly told the public as we go into our 8th month of Covid-19 restrictions, “We are in this together!”. Are you really?

Premier Kenney, your UCP government actions since you began your tenure as Premier in April 2019, I cannot see any significant actions towards many of those above mentioned promises or guarantees; in which you have kept. It’s has been disappointing and difficult to trust politicians in general in keeping their promises. The poor attitude and disrespect to my fellow Albertans which have been given from your Cabinet ministers as well as other members of your UCP government is absolutely disgusting. Due to the fact your job is in a provincial government position, this doesn’t make you more intelligent nor does it make you above us - you are still on the same level of respect and intelligence as me, a former public sector employee working in AHS Calgary Zone Hospitals for over 10 years in Data Collection section of Health Records Department. Premier Kenney, you work in the public sector in which you received your position by receiving the highest number of votes by UCP Albertans, but you  work for ALL Albertans, regardless of party in either the public or private sectors. I fear, you have forgotten this important fact as Premier of our province of Alberta. 

My Main Question for you: What the heck are you doing Premier Kenney, along with Minister Of Health - Tyler Shandro, to our provincial healthcare system? You are destroying and undermining our National Universal Healthcare System, which is the right for every Canadian. A healthcare system which makes me proud to be Canadian and that our governments actually care about the health and wellness of Canadians. Why do you and your UCP government have this obsession in privatizing our public sectors like healthcare, making us into an American 2-tier healthcare system? Why are you trying to, in general, Americanize Alberta and create a division between Alberta and Ottawa which supports the ideology of Wexit? I thought you have shared with us, “You love the people of Alberta and You love Canada.” Premier Kenney, I am sorry to tell you this, your actions since your tenure as my Premier starting in April 2019, tell quite the opposite story. 

Premier Kenney, I listened to your interview on October 19, 2020 with Danielle Smith on 770 CHQR radio speaking about some of your recent UCP members policies that passed at your virtual AGM submit last month. Of course, one the controversial policies, Policy 11 - with a slim majority of 52% passing that the UCP government will support privatization of our healthcare. In your conversation with Ms. Smith you said that the changes you wish to do by privatizing services is not an American Healthcare System; as your plan is still is providing an universal public healthcare system but the proposed additional private facilities such as the $200 million Orthopaedic Surgery facility in Edmonton. This will provide an option to have a self-pay surgery option, if Albertans wish or any other provincial jurisdiction for that matter. You mentioned cataract surgery in your interview. Yes, they are completed in private facilities within our province as well as at the Rockyview General Hospital in Calgary. Patients having these procedures at the private ophthalmology surgery facilities, our Alberta Health are still covering the costs for the procedure. Premier Kenney, first question - Is the cost of procedure done at the private facility the same cost if performed at Rockyview General Hospital to Alberta Health? My second question - Can you explain to me how it is calculated showing wait times for surgeries would decrease, and healthcare costs per person per capita decrease having these private facilities available to Albertans. In honesty Premier Kenney, to my knowledge, all I see is increase healthcare costs to Alberta and private individuals and longer wait times in the public sector due to lure of surgeons working at these facilities rather than public acute care hospitals which leaves of less surgeons to perform surgeries. Premier Kenney, I ask to please respond to this letter and explain the rationale to the UCP party and membership to support this change to our provincial healthcare. One of your remarks that stood out in your conversation with Ms. Smith, and it is when said, Alberta has the lowest private options in healthcare in Canada and this is the aim of your party to bring these options to Albertans. I was stunned by your remark Premier Kenney. I had no idea, in honesty this taking place in Canada. Premier Kenney, to become more knowledgeable about this issue, I am asking will you send evidence via links or documents of other provinces such as Quebec, Ontario, BC and Alberta providing more healthcare options to their citizens. I really am interested in understanding and improving my knowledge on this issue. 

What yourself and Minister Shandro are destructing our provincial healthcare has been incredibly insensitive towards all employees in the healthcare sector, disgusting, disrespectful to the Alberta citizens whom you say serve and care for. I should make mention that you are the ONLY Premier in Canada who are disrupting the province’s healthcare during a global/national Health Crisis. Sickening how you are treating these hard working citizens of your province. It is not you who is putting their life on the line for others every single day! Yes it is the RNs, LPNs, and Physicians which people consider as “frontline staff”, but Premier Kenney it is the “backbone” of healthcare employees that you are forgetting about that work with the RNs/LPNs/Physicians. It a team effort that goes into giving every Albertan the highest quality of care. It is the employees in housekeeping and laundry which ensures we have clean, sterile linens and surgical equipment to protect patients from infections. The housekeeping employees ensures all our room are cleaned each and every day. If a patient is in isolation, they continue to clean their room with the appropriate PPE before entering the room. Premier Kenney another vital employee from AUPE, where you have cut 11,000 jobs with more to come after the “pandemic” is over. It is the health care aides (HCAs). The RNs and LPNs could not do their duties properly without HCAs. It is the HCAs who perform the basic daily needs to every patient in the hospital. They are responsible for getting patients up and changed for the day; transferring patients to their wheelchairs or bedside chairs; feed those patients who cannot feed themselves; bath in a shower or a bed-bath to ensure the patient are clean to reduce the risk of infections and pressure wounds. You see, Premier Kenney and Minister Shandro, before you both continue to chop at our healthcare expenses, ask politely, what will the impact be to services you promised us before being elected in your Public Heath Guarantee, for a maintaining or increasing our quality of healthcare. The question you should be asking yourself, if I cut jobs from one area, what are the ramifications to maintaining the services and quality? Once you know the ramifications, then you can know if it’s the right decision. In a hospital, it takes a whole teamwork effort, to ensure the highest quality of healthcare is given to all Albertans. Wish the UCP government would realize how to work as a team player rather than as a bully or dictator. The attitude of, “It’s my way, or the highway.”, which accomplishes absolutely nothing but disrespect and distrust of each other. This is where we are now and I believe we are at the tip of having chaos in our province. It is a scary situation reading, listening and seeing about disruption of healthcare services because of the conflict between our provincial government and the healthcare sector. And addition stress to the situation of living with a highly contagious Covid-19 virus pandemic that is not going away any time soon. Please Premier Kenney, show the leadership we need to find a compromise from all parties, which includes sacrifices to be made by BOTH sides, towards an outcome that works. 

Why are you, a Premier Kenney and Minister Shandro having a difficult time having a civil discussion with physicians, Alberta Medical Association (AMA) and government? Why isn’t there respect and dignity in your conversations? Why does Minister Shandro feel you have publish a “Sunshine List” listing physicians incomes? Is that seems like a bullish move to sway citizens that this is all about the money and the reason for discord? Give me break Premier Kenney and Minister Shandro. I do not see any other province/territory who are fighting and bullying their healthcare system, during a global/national health pandemic no less, than you two. What is up with that? Why is the UCP government always seems to be in “fight” mode with healthcare, education, and Ottawa? Have you ever thought of trying a teamwork approach, or kinder approach, or a collaboration approach in your decision making? Do you ever take a minute before finalizing your decision to look at the impacts in the ripple before casting that stone? 

Case in point in Lakeland region in Northern Alberta, due to the situation you have created among the physicians, Lakeland’s only general surgeon to leave the community. With the only general surgeon leaving and AHS has decided not to find a replacement, I have a question for you both. What will happen to the 2 anesthesiologists? What will happen OR nursing staff, housekeeping staff responsible for maintaining a clean and sterile environment for surgeries performed, and the porters who are responsible for transferring patients to and from the OR room? What will happen to the nursing staff who are responsible for the care of the patients before and after surgery? The answer - more job losses in rural community in Alberta as well as lack of healthcare for Lakeland communities. Have you thought of this Premier Kenney, Minister Shandro and AHS? You publish this Sunshine list, it is not “net pay”, it is gross pay (amount given BEFORE taxes and deductions are made). Physicians clinic is similar to a small business would have to deduct from their gross earnings. They would have some of these deductions before any income goes into their pockets: Rent; Utilities to have functioning clinic; salaries for their staff (receptionists, RNs, Office Manager(s), Office staff to ensure patients charts are up to date and available for the physician); Insurance as well as professional certification and association fees; and supplies to ensure health and safety of patients and professionals during appointments. As physicians are like small businesses they need to ensure themselves and their staff have benefits coverage. After all those deductions have been made, then we look at physicians incomes. 

Finally, Premier Kenney and Minister Shandro why do I see inaction from your government on containing the Covid-19 virus in our province. I am sorry Premier Kenney telling Albertans to “knock it off and stop having parties.”, that is not a decisive action to contain this virus. It will go through one ear and out the other. Just from Thanksgiving weekend to present day, we are making records for the wrong reasons - highest daily count since the pandemic began in March 2020 (we have been living with this virus for almost 8 months); we have reached over 10,000 cases in our province; and multiple acute care hospitals are having outbreaks in Edmonton and Calgary. This should not be surprising as they are the two hotspot cities in Alberta. Currently, we are having a resurgence of the virus, the increase number of outbreaks in hospital facilities, and with rising cases of hospitalizations and ICU cases, it is becoming a growing strain on our hospital resources. This is more scarier than in March 2020 as hospital beds and resources are nearing capacity levels to overwhelming to contain in this province. I see Premiers of Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba issuing stricter restrictions to combat raising cases. Even this weekend, Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued a total lockdown for country of England because Covid-19 cases have reached 1 million cases! But what are you doing Premier Kenney with your UCP government to combat our rising cases this past month - absolutely nothing! Sorry, voluntary restrictions are a joke, unless these restrictions are mandatory, can you truly tell me they will be followed? I think not. Your fellow Premiers realize the message is not being followed therefore they had to issue stricter restrictions. What are you afraid of Premier Kenney? Are you afraid upsetting your pals from large corporations and companies that fill your coffers?  The attitude of profits over Alberta citizens are more important to you Premier Kenney. If it’s true, how disgusting and upsetting you think that to a province you profess to love.

Premier Kenney, I need to tell you. I am 50 years old living in a long term care facility in Calgary’s upper NE quadrant, which is one of the hotspots in Calgary. On October 11, 2020, one of my fellow residents came down with symptoms and tested positive for the Covid-19 virus. My facility put my unit on automatic quarantine after receiving the first positive result. As of last night, we have 35 residents and 17 staff members who have tested positive and sadly 2 of the 31 residents have passed away. From I have seen and read from our daily email updates from leadership, they are doing everything they can to keep us safe. As we saw in the Spring outbreaks in LTC facilities, this virus is highly contagious, spreading quickly in close quarters which you find in our older facilities and despite the great outbreak protocols in place, the virus can still slip through infecting residents and staff. As we are Covid-19 facility outbreak, residents can not see their loved ones unless palliative. It has 21 days in which I have been quarantined to my 350 square foot room and with yesterday’s new case of a positive Covid-19, I will have to remained quarantined for an additional 14 days if no new cases are found then need to wait for another 14 days without any new cases before the facility outbreak is lifted. If we are lucky by early December, we can see our designated persons or have outdoor visits with loved ones. I can still see a light Premier Kenney, but I need your help.  It’s not too late to rectify our situation in Alberta. Listen to Dr. Hinshaw advice as she too are concerned about the rising cases, hospitalizations and deaths we have seen since Thanksgiving weekend. Unlike Ontario and Quebec, our increased community spread numbers are coming from private social gatherings, they are coming not from our restaurants. This shows me they are following the provincial guidelines to allow their businesses to remain open contributing to our economy and maintaining hospitality jobs, which has been hit hardest during this pandemic. There must be a happy middle ground to have mandatory restrictions in place to balancing our economy and providing the health and safety for Alberta. We need to realize ALL of us need to make sacrifices in our personal and workplace lives to make it work. Like you repeatedly tell us, “We are in this together.” Indeed we are in this together Premier Kenney. 

Premier Kenney, I realize you have a full plate, so I appreciate you taking the time reading my letter and having an opportunity to communicate back to me with your comments, feedback as well clarifying what I am not understanding correctly. I welcome your political colleagues and those in the medical sector, like AHS for their comments and feedback. My email is laura2travel@yahoo.ca. I look forward to hearing from you. 

Sincerely yours, 

Laura Jean Rutherford 

Cc’d:

Honourable Erin O’Toole, Federal leader of Conservatives Party of Canada, Leader of Oppositon

Honourable Prasad Panda - Alberta Minister of infrastructure, MLA Calgary-Skyview

Honourable Rajan Sawhney - Alberta Minister of Community and Social Services, MLA Calgary -Northeast 

Honourable Rachel Notley - NDP Leader of Alberta, Provincial Leader of the Oppositon

Honourable Tyler Shandro  - Alberta’s Minister of Health

Dr. Deanna Hinshaw - Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer 

Honourable David Shepherd - Alberta’s NDP Health Critic

Honourable Justin Trudeau - Prime Minister of Canada

Honourable Chrystia Freeman -  Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, Minister of Finance

Dr. Theresa Tam - Canada’s Chief Medical Officer 

Honourable Patty Harju - Federal Minister of Health 

Honourable Don Davies, Federal NDP critic for Health

Honourable Matthew Jeneroux, Federal CPC critic for Health

Honourable Travis Toews, Alberta’s Minister of Finance & President of Treasury Board

Mr. Naheed Nenshi, Mayor of Calgary

Ms. Janice Harrington, Alberta Health Advocates, Health Advocate

Dr. Christine P. Molnar, MD, FRCPC, President, Alberta Medical Association 

Dr. Katharine Smart, President-elect, Canadian Medical Association 

Dr. Vishal Bhella, President, Alberta College of Family Physicians

Dr. Scott McLeod, Registrar, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta 

Ms. Shirley Schipper, President, College of Family Physicians of Canada 

Mr. David Weyant, Chair for Alberta Health Services Board

Dr. Verna Yiu - President/CEO of AHS  

Dr. Sid Viner - Calgary Zone Chief Medical Director 

Dr. Nicholas Etches, Interim Calgary Zone Lead Medical Officer