Victorian Order of Nurses to shut down Alberta operations

The Victorian Order of Nurses (VON)is closing its programs and laying off 105 employees in Alberta a move that shows how private health care is undermining the system, critics say.

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The home and community-based health care organization isdrasticallydownsizingoperations across Canada, saying ithas been struggling to meet the needs of a growing number of clients with finite resources.

In Alberta,105 full- and part-time employees will be laid off.

Day programs in Calgary, Edmonton and Lethbridge will close by Dec. 9.

The health care advocacy group Friends of Medicare has accused theAHS of beingin "a race to the bottom to slash costs, which squeezes out not-for-profit groups like VON."

'Hard choices'

VON is also shutting down its operations in Saskatchewan, Manitoba,New Brunswick,Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

It's clear that instead of a race to the top for quality care, we have a race to the bottom to slash costs- SandraAzocar,Friends of Medicare

It will limit its services in Ontario and Nova Scotia.

"We have had to make some hard choices about where we are able to make a difference in the lives of the greatest number of people," Jo-Anne Poirier, the group's president, said in a release Wednesday.

VON's adult day program in Calgary has 40 clients. Itsfoot care clinic serves about 215 clients in various locations.

The organizationsays it has only two private clients in Calgary and the organization will try to find other service providers for them.

'Race to the bottom'

Friends of Medicare says VON's decision to leave Alberta demonstrates that experiments in private care must stop.

"This is now twice since 2013 AHS has lost a contract for home care services," said the group's executive director Sandra Azocar in a release.

"Home care should not be subject to the pressures of a competitive market. It's clear that instead of a race to the top for quality care, we have a race to the bottom to slash costs, which squeezes out not-for-profit groups like VON."

Friends of Medicare is calling on the province to conduct a review of Alberta's home care system, boost funding and move toward a fully publicly delivered model.

Luanne Whitmarsh,the executive director of the Kerby Centre, says theyoften referclients to programs offered by the VON.

"It's a sad day really thatit's come to this," she said. "I think it's a tragedy from the perspective of you build relationships with those you support and serve and so those folks, whomever they are, have lost their relationship with the organization that they trust."