Covenant Health, AHS subsidiaries face job cuts: spokesperson
Some of the 11,000 jobs the Alberta government plans to start outsourcing to save money will be coming from Covenant Health, Capitalcare and Carewest, Alberta Health Services confirmed Friday.
To date, the government's public discussion of the cuts, announced last week, has focused on AHS and the AHS review implementation plan that led to the outsourcing slated for jobs in laboratories, housekeeping, food services and laundry in an effort to save $600 million annually after three years.
But AHS spokesperson Kerry Williamson confirmed Friday that Covenant Health, Capitalcare and Carewest are part of the “AHS umbrella” and will be included in the cuts.
That was news to the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE), which represents most of the people who will be losing jobs, said AUPE vice-president Kevin Barry.
“It's definitely a surprise for us because it's new information. And it's obviously going beyond Alberta Health Services,” he said.
Williamson said Carewest and Capitalcare are subsidiaries of AHS while Covenant Health is a partner and contracted service provider.
He said AHS does not have a breakdown of the jobs being lost between AHS, Covenant Health, Capitalcare and Carewest, but said they were part of the 11,000 total released last week.
AHS posted a request for proposals (RFP) for linen and laundry service online Friday.
The chosen contractor or contractors will be responsible for laundry and linen services, including on-site pick-up and delivery, processing, replacement and quality control of standard linens, operating room linens, specialty linens and uniforms.
In a statement Friday, AHS said the outsourcing of laundry means 428 full-time and casual AHS employees will lose their jobs and that it hopes some of those people will be able to find work with the new vendor or vendors.
Covenant Health says the RFP will potentially impact five Covenant sites and 11 staff members.
“We recognize this is difficult news for staff at the affected sites. It's important to note the RFP is the first step in exploring this option,” communications manager Karen Diaper said in a statement.
It's not clear yet how much the laundry contract will cost. The request for proposals closes Dec. 1 and AHS says the process for choosing a vendor will take approximately four months, including a full review of all proposals received.
AHS estimates the move to contract out the services will eliminate the need to spend more than $38 million in upgrades to laundry infrastructure that would otherwise be needed.
“More than two-thirds of laundry services are already provided by a third party in Alberta, including all laundry services in both Calgary (urban) and Edmonton. This full transition to a third-party provider will allow for the reinvestment of health-care dollars into direct patient care,” the AHS statement says.
In a statement earlier in the day, the AUPE accused the government of sowing chaos with its privatization plans.
“Jason Kenney wants to corrode their working conditions, pay, benefits, hours, and more. Privatizing laundry also results in lower quality and sometimes unsafe services as staff are forced to cut corners to create profit for the private owners.”