Alberta Canada Removes Regulations for Standards of Care in Nursing Homes

Alberta’s new continuing care regulations come into effect April 1, but critics are questioning why the new rules do not prescribe how many hours of care residents of a facility should receive. 

The Nursing Homes Operations Regulation said each resident of a facility should get a minimum 1.9 hours of nursing and personal care each day, but the new Continuing Care Act Regulations are silent on the issue. 

“Until now, if an Albertan wanted to be assured that their loved one would get a minimum standard of care, it was in the law,” NDP Leader Rachel Notley said at a news conference Tuesday. “Now there is no guarantee.”

The new regulations were approved by cabinet in a closed-door meeting. They were published online at the end of February.

Questions about the new continuing care standards come as the government continues to face criticism over the case of Blair Canniff, an Edmonton stroke patient who was taken to a motel in Leduc by a contracted service provider after he was discharged from the Royal Alexandra Hospital earlier this month. 

Canniff is paralyzed on one side and uses a wheelchair. He says he was told he was going to a long-term care facility. Instead, he was dropped at the motel, where he was given fast food meals and struggled to get into the bathroom and the bed. He was moved back to the hospital a week later. 

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