EDMONTON—Members of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) say soiled sheets and lost valuables are the new norm in Alberta hospitals thanks to privatized laundry services, and they have the photos to prove it.
AUPE members and other health care workers report that gowns, sheets, and rags are often soiled or filled with used needles after returning from K-Bro, the private company hired by the provincial government to provide laundry services for health care centres across the province.
“Some staff have even reported finding dentures and used diapers in supposedly clean linens,” says Curtis Jackson, AUPE vice-president and chair of the union’s Anti-Privatization Committee.
“Health care works when we focus on quality, not profits,” he says. “Health care staff and patients across the province experience the awful reality of for-profit laundry services first-hand. Albertans deserve a higher standard of health care, which can only be achieved through public ownership and accountability.”
Former premier Jason Kenney's government officially privatized all publicly-operated hospital laundry services in late 2021 and into 2022. All AHS retail food services were privatized shortly thereafter in 2023.
AUPE members are now worried premier Danielle Smith’s relationships with Trump officials and allies in the United States will inspire her to further Americanize Alberta’s health care system.
“Taking publicly-delivered health services out of the public domain and awarding them as contracts to private corporations has consistently cost our province and everyday Albertans more while providing lower quality and diminished outcomes,” says Jackson.
Recent private health care disasters have also increased workers’ anxiety over privatized services, including the government’s private surgical contracts scandal as well as the DynaLife debacle, which the government insisted would save money but instead cost Albertans $100 million to save and bring back into the public system.
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