Thread by @draymaker

Every Albertan - right, left, hanging upside down - should be livid about how the @jkenney govt is targeting healthcare to pay for its multi billion $ failed bribe to the oil barons. I have a personal story (thread 1/?) #ableg #abpoli cbc.ca/news/canada/ed…

@jkenney Nearly 2 years ago, my mother was dying of lung cancer in Calgary - first at home, then in palliative care at Rockyview Hospital #ableg (2/?)

The Alberta nurses & support workers that helped us care for Mom were absolutely phenomenal caregivers. We were so lucky to be able to count on them during that terrible time. They were also overstretched & overworked #ableg (3/?)

Our nurses & caregivers did not let shitty working conditions get in the way of extending the best possible care to Mom & comforting our family. They lifted us up daily with superhuman efforts, even though they were doing the work of many more #ableg (4/?)

This includes everybody from Foothills Cancer Care who ran MRIs & radiation labs around the clock to the homecare workers who were expected to do 2 hours of work in 15 mins according to a dumbass work-flow algorithm (not incl travel time) #ableg (5/?)

I noticed a couple of things. Homecare was contracted out to private firms who employed women caregivers who were recent immigrants. They were amazing. But they didn't have f/t status, worked loads of unpaid overtime, weren't paid for travel time .... #ableg (6/?)

... & juggled multiple jobs. That's crazy! They were saving AHS loads of $ on the acute care side & were being treated like minimum wage burger flippers instead of hardworking professionals. #ableg (7/?)

At the hospitals, nurses in cancer, intensive & palliative care were forced to care for many more patients than was reasonable for a 1st World country. They were in a triage situation much of the time, but far away from the ER #ableg (8/?)

Still, they soldiered on & did the best they could for patients & their families. More so than a lot (but not all) of the doctors, who could be impatient, aloof & condescending. I didn't want miracles, just the same degree of quality care given by nurses #ableg (9/?)

Mom passed away surrounded by people who loved her deeply & by incredible healthcare professionals who made her very comfortable at the end of her life. We were grateful for their efforts. #ableg (10/?)

To discover these professionals could be out of a job because a corporate toady like @Jkenney handed over $4 billion+ to his buddies at Husky, Encana, etc. to fund dividends & downsizing should make Albertans have a goddamn revolution. #ableg (11/?)

In no other province would this BS slide by. Healthcare professionals who make AHS work are going to be hung out to dry while @jkenney ramps up his propaganda outfit to hand out millions $ to Randy Dawson & @navltd to defame Swedish teenagers. #ableg (12/?)

Phone Kenney. Phone your dipshit #UPC MLA. Show up at their constit offices & events. Tell them nobody voted for this. Here, I made it easy for you: assembly.ab.ca/net/index.aspx… #ableg (13/?)

An epilogue: My Mom was also a nurse & she loved being a nurse. It meant more to her to help people get well than anything else other than her family. She was trained & worked at the Holy Cross Hospital in Calgary. #ableg 14/?)

The Holy Cross was sold by Ralph Klein for pennies on the dollar of what it was worth to Drs. Ian & Peter Huang. It was Calgary's only downtown hospital. It was closed down & turned into a private clinic so rich people could jump the healthcare queue #ableg (15/?)

The Huang's were huge donors to Klein's PC Party. I haven't checked, but they probably pitched in a few grand to @jkenney. But the Huang's aren't very good at running private clinics.
calgaryherald.com/news/calgary/h… #ableg (16/?)

My mother never got over the sale of the Holy Cross to a couple of private health charlatans. But that is where Alberta is going, once again. If you thought Klein degraded public healthcare in Alberta, @jkenney is about to bury it. #ableg (17/?)

RIP Mom 😥 theglobeandmail.com/life/facts-and… #ableg (END)