At the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSSA)-run protest at the Calgary Foothills Hospital, Alberta's healthcare professionals gathered on Thursday to demand a series of requests from the government.At the scene, protesters chanted and cars honked as they drove by the spectacle, holding flags and signs with the HSSA logo and signs with statements like: "Support this struggle," and "Unbreakable" held up to onlookers.There were also some memorable figures present whom healthcare workers and Albertans in general might've recognized.In attendance were Court Ellingson, NDP MLA for Calgary-Foothills, and the Vice President of the HSSA, Leanne Alfaro..Although Ellingson's team turned down an interview with the Western Standard, he gave a short comment stating, "it's time for the government to realize that our healthcare system needs support.""Our public health care system needs support."Alfaro elaborated on what healthcare members are actually asking for and why the 30,000 paramedical technical, professional and general support employees in Alberta's healthcare system represented by the union are threatening to strike."We need to have a plan to retain who we have and to recruit into the immense vacancies we have across this province, and our over 200 professionals that provide care and recruit future healthcare professionals," Alfaro said."That's not happening —there's no plan, and we need that.".Getting more into the nitty gritty, what health professionals are after Alfaro said is "Better wages, better working conditions, including safe workplaces."Alfaro reasoned this is needed since, "Healthcare is in a crisis.""It's not just in Alberta, it's across Canada, it's globally, and the crisis is due to short staffing.""So we need to be competitive. Alberta needs to be competitive, right? There's only so many trained healthcare professionals out there.""Average isn't competitive.""Average wages and poor working conditions is not competitive.""We won't be able to recruit people to healthcare here, right again, without the plan to solve that," she asserted. .In terms of future healthcare workers and how the government can invest in them, Alfaro says:"It needs to be something sustainable that you can see in the long term, because the education that you need and the cost of that education.""So to invest in that, Alberta needs to invest in the people that care for the patients."
