AUPE calling out province to fix health care crisis

By Lethbridge Herald on January 19, 2026.

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman

Lethbridge Herald

The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) is calling on the provincial government to act immediately to rescue the province’s health care system to avoid a full-scale collapse of services. 

Sandra Azocar, president of AUPE says front-line health care workers, including doctors, have raised the alarm about the state of Alberta’s health care system. They cite hospitals operating over capacity, crumbling infrastructure, and worksite safety as some of the major issues that must be addressed.

“Hospitals are understaffed, and workers face increasingly dangerous and violent conditions. Front-line hospital staff are burning out, but the Alberta government refuses to help them,” says Azocar. 

She said the government is actually making the situation worse, with the privatization of Alberta’s health system, and the breakup and decentralization of Alberta Health Services.

“The government has refused to heed these warnings despite revealing in a press conference on Thursday that hospitals are operating at 102 per cent capacity,” says Azocar.

She says that dismantling AHS created a situation where there is now “too many cooks in the kitchen” at a time when solid decision-making is needed, and this is why the Alberta Medical Association has called on the government to declare a state of emergency.

“The government’s refusal to change course seems to be guided by a broader political agenda. The government seems determined to shift public funding toward private clinics rather than stabilizing the public system,” says Azocar. 

She says that Alberta’s health care system is failing, and it is doing so because of the government’s deliberate choices. 

AUPE is calling on the Alberta government to declare a health care emergency, invest in public health care infrastructure, increase staffing levels, provide a greater security presence in hospitals to increase worksite safety, conduct transparent investigations into recent emergency room deaths and violent incidents, and end policies that divert resources from public care to private clinics.

“Albertans deserve a strong, publicly funded and publicly delivered health care system that protects their health, instead of lining corporate pockets,” says Azocar. 

When talking about what will happen if the government declares a health care emergency, Azocar says they will have to free up resources to deal with it. 

“The press conference didn’t give us any clear indication of what it is that they’re willing to do. They are currently moving people around to different facilities so that there’s room, but some of the solutions that they gave are long term solutions,” says Azocar. 

She says Albertans need something put in place now, something that will yield results now, not in five years down the road. 

“The government around this time really likes to blame flu season for the increase in that. We know that happens every year. But what is happening right now in ER departments, is more than just an increase of flu season. It is a system that’s under collapse,” says Azocar. 

She says what needs to happen is that this government needs to get serious about addressing the core issues facing our healthcare system. 

“There’s short-term and long-term solutions that need to be implemented and this government needs to start talking to healthcare workers, and frontline workers to know exactly where the pressure points are instead of making healthcare policy decisions that don’t serve anybody,” says Azocar.