The safety of hospital patients, staff and visitors will be imperiled if Alberta Health Services goes ahead with plans to replace in-house security staff with roving rent-a-cops, the AUPE warns.
Members of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees were told at a recent meeting in Ponoka that on May 1 Alberta Health Services plans to save $6 million annually by replacing security staff at the Centennial Centre and Ponoka Hospital and Care Centre.
“We’re looking at losing six full-time equivalent employees between the general and Centennial Centre,” explained Jason Heistad, AUPE vice-president. Those employees provide security on the afternoon and overnight sifts.
Heistad said the union is concerned not only for the safety of its 800 employees working in the community, but also that of patients and visitors.
Hospital security staff often deal with people who come to the hospitals drunk or high on drugs. RCMP are available to provide assistance but when they are involved with emergencies, a drunk at the hospital might not be a priority.
“Alberta Health Services says they’re going to have security but it’s going to be on a patrol basis,” Heistad said.
“In rural Alberta, the intention of Alberta Health Services is to have roving security,” Heistad said. “There wouldn’t be anybody at those sites working whatsoever.”
A few years ago contracted security staff were replaced with AUPE employees because of the poor quality of service delivered, Heistad said.
“The problem was retention. The people who looked after the contract didn’t pay their employees that well and there were no benefits.”
He said it was hard for the contractor to keep good staff because of the low wages paid and eventually David Thompson Health Authority brought the security staff under the hospital’s umbrella. The goal was to get good people in the positions and to keep them.
AUPE staff plan to provide information pickets at the hospitals to alert the community to the plan and advise residents to contact MLA Ray Prins with their concerns.