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Workers Nationwide Fight New Assault on Health Care Governments' Refusal to Protect the People
Alberta currently provides the worst example of social irresponsibility in this regard, but other provinces are in fact no better. The agenda of the ruling United Conservative Party (UCP) in Alberta "to keep the economy open," no matter the consequences serves the demands of the monopolies and is rejected by all those on the front lines of the healthcare system. The government has nonetheless already rejected all calls to take strict public health measures to get the pandemic under control.
When the province dropped virtually all public health measures early in the summer there was massive opposition, with daily demonstrations and appeals from health care workers, doctors, municipal politicians and the public to reverse course. The consequences of the government's refusal to act are seen in the current situation. As of October 1, Alberta had the highest rate of infections in the country -- close to four times the national average -- and deaths from COVID-19 in Alberta are about triple the national average. Saskatchewan is in a similar situation.
Frontline workers and health care professionals know what needs to be done and are continuing to fight for what is needed. Solutions to problems can be found if everyone is informed and involved in working out solutions. Whether the need is for human resources or for equipment or for increased hospital capacity, the solutions depend on the mobilization of the working class to unite all those whose common aim is the well-being of the society itself. (Photos: WF, Radical Citizens' Media)
This article was published in Article Link:   Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca |
On September 29, Canadian Medical Association President Katharine Smart
issued a statement entitled "We need to mobilize now: Alberta and
Saskatchewan's health systems at breaking point." In it she calls for,
among other things, effective public health measures such as
'firebreakers' or 'circuit breakers' to aggressively
control COVID-19 cases, bringing health workers from other provinces to
assist, and transporting patients to other provinces that have ICU
capacity. She told the Globe and Mail in
a phone interview that "What we're seeing now is essentially no ability
to provide any other acute-care medicine beyond care to people with
COVID. So, in
essence, the health care system has already collapsed." In her
published statement she said, "We are now witnessing an unprecedented
health care crisis in Alberta and Saskatchewan -- and patients and
health workers are experiencing unfathomable choices and consequences.
Early relaxation of public health measures has left two crumbling
health
care systems in their wake and the dire realities are now in full view."
Kenney
himself, in response to calls from every quarter for a circuit-breaker
lockdown as was implemented at the start of the pandemic, made the
outrageous comment that he would not do so because that would "punish"
people who are vaccinated. While frontline workers and people
everywhere are making sacrifices, taking social
responsibility to protect themselves and others and demanding
government action to protect everyone, Kenney speaks only on behalf of
the narrow private interests that insist that the economy stay "open."
At
the base of the health care crisis is the crisis of democracy, that it
is not the people who are sovereign, who are the decision-makers. The
crisis of representative democracy is such that the people have no say
on matters that concern them and governments act on behalf of the rich
and not the people no matter the consequences.