An internal Alberta Health Services (AHS) memo encouraging emergency patients to bring their own food, snacks, and money for the vending machine has Albertans and healthcare workers fuming.
“Most sites have vending machines or on-site retail food services, and staff can provide information on nearby food options if needed,” said the memo posted to X by Paul Parks, an ER doc and past president of the Alberta Medical Association.
It went on to say “This initiative ensures that resources are allocated efficiently while maintaining high standards of care.”
Dr. Parks questioned in another social media post if the provincial government has “lost what it means to provide the CARE in Health Care? We are currently starving many of our stranded (emergency department) hallway (patients), but maybe (Albertans) will rise up when they see we are denying kids (with) cancer?”
AHS and Health Minister Adriana LaGrange are facing tough questions about the memo’s meaning.
“The proposed policy was not meant to deprive patients of food. What was meant to change is how food is stored and delivered to patients in an effort to reduce waste that is occurring in our hospitals. I have reviewed this policy which was brought forward prior to my arrival at AHS and, after feedback from clinicians, have decided that AHS will not move forward with these changes,” interim AHS president and CEO Andre Tremblay said in a statement.
The Bigger Picture
At a press conference, Minister LaGrange said the memo was being misinterpreted.
“I would say that in fact what AHS has proposed was to streamline their processes for food that they disperse out and where it’s medically required, where individuals are having surgery, particularly young children,” LaGrange said.
This proposed penny-pinching food plan comes amid growing controversy over service disruptions at 25 ERs managed by AHS.
Great West Media did the math on AHS numbers showing emergency rooms around the province closed for more than 34,000 hours in 2024. That’s down slightly from 38,000 hours in 2023.
The main reason is a physician shortage that resulted in disruptions between a few hours and more than a month, which was the case for nine ERs.
The one in Consort, east of Red Deer, has been closed since 2022.
When Tracee Moneta took her 18-month-old son suffering from pneumonia to the Elk Point Healthcare Services Centre, there was no doctor available.
So, they had to make a 50-kilometre trip to Bonnyville to see a physician. “I probably drove about 140 (km/h) to Bonnyville because he was passing out in the back seat,” she told Great West Media. “And when we got there, he was immediately put on oxygen and got x-rayed and everything like that.”
