Exclusive: Alberta Government Transferring COVID-Positive Patients into Care Homes

We’ve been told that the COVID-19 pandemic is the greatest threat we’ve ever faced. We’ve been told by our government to sacrifice our lives, our businesses, our children’s futures. We’ve been told “we’re all in this together” for the greater good. Why? To save the most vulnerable – those in care homes. But are we? 

Every measure put in place to protect the most vulnerable has destroyed their quality of life. They are being treated like prisoners, only having seen the same two visitors for a year now. They never see an unmasked face. Everything for their comfort and care has been stripped away. Even their families have been made afraid to visit. This is now long-term “care”. But at least they’re safe from the virus…or are they?

Everything I am about to assert can be verified and I will attest to in a court of law.

On Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, Minister of Health Tyler Shandro, and Chief Medical Officer Deena Hinshaw’s Orders, care homes locked their doors last March. Anyone who questions this enforced isolation is told “We’re just following the Orders” and now “The rollout of the vaccine is a priority”. At least the most vulnerable are safe from the virus. But are they?. 

We discovered that AHS is moving COVID-positive patients into care homes. Just like they did in New York under Governor Andrew Cuomo, resulting in a cascade of deaths. We have had this corroborated by multiple sources in and out of the system. It’s common practice and commonly known within the medical community, government offices, and judicial arenas. I have in writing that AHS, under the direction of Jason Kenney, Tyler Shandro, and Deena Hinshaw, are importing COVID infections into care homes. 

Effectively, the government and the AHS are taking a tinder box and tossing in a flame thrower. In Canada, we know that almost all COVID-associated deaths are in care homes. But the public, family, and residents are being actively misled about this. Between AHS, Capital Care, and my Mother’s care centre, 1000 people (staff, residents and families) have been put at risk by this practice which has resulted in endless lockdowns, neglect and infection spread. How many more has this affected in other care homes? 

My mother’s current care home “outbreak” for COVID19 “cases” has lasted almost two months. An “outbreak” means no transfers in or out of the centre and a raft of extremely restrictive measures on-site. 

About a month ago, a misleading email update to families implied that a COVID positive resident had been identified in my Mother’s unit. This was a lie by omission. In fact, the COVID positive patient had been transferred from an active treatment hospital directly to my Mum’s unit. Nowhere in this email does it state that this COVID positive patient was transferred into a shared room with an uninfected, elderly, and mobile roommate. Nowhere in this email does it state that this COVID positive patient was transferred to a unit that had never had a COVID “case” before this point. 

How is this – as per IPC (infection prevention control) – “placed on isolation”? This mobile roommate was not aware of this risk. This mobile roommate had no idea that they were going to be confined to their room with a COVID positive person for the next two weeks and placed at risk by AHS. This mobile roommate was seen to leave their room, unsupervised and placing others at risk. No PPE, no sanitization, no protocols followed or enforced. This is not the fault of these residents. They are victims of circumstance and the failed policies of AHS. 

The roommate stood on a red X taped on the floor immediately outside the door of their room and the adjacent shared room. This roommate was crying, “Why can’t I leave my room, I don’t have COVID”. The COVID positive patient lay in the bed next to them, without a mask, no barriers, the door to the shared room open. These residents spent two weeks in the same room, neither wearing PPE, unsupervised, one of which, remember, is a COVID ‘positive case’. 

When the general public can’t even visit their own family, how is this helping anyone or ‘saving the most vulnerable’? Is it because COVID isn’t the risk they tell us it is? If so, why have we destroyed society? If it is as risky as they say, then AHS is actively killing these high-risk residents through their extreme negligence. Is it because active treatment beds cost more than care home beds? Which is it, AHS? Why is this being hidden from the public? Ignored by the media? Staff is being actively threatened to keep quiet about this. Albertans have sacrificed everything for this government’s and AHS’s false claim of saving those at risk.

Residents and staff have suffered countless rounds of testing, with a PCR test that AHS and Kenney admit is unfit for purpose. Staff is forced to wear PPE for hours on end. Yet most “cases” in most care homes until very recently came from staff members testing positive with no symptoms. 

Staff are not able to do their jobs effectively when they are smothered in PPE (which frankly appears to be nothing more than virtue signalling), never worn like this before even in an outbreak situation. Masks and shields put staff health at risk, especially those with pre-existing conditions. That in turn risks the residents they care for. Management knows this but just follows orders. PPE is not changed regularly, worn continuously, sometimes re-used, all against infection protocols. This is a Health and Safety issue, well documented by staff, by our family, and supported by many studies in this area before COVID19. Those who force these dangerous practices may well find themselves personally and professionally liable.

Care homes are struggling with staff shortages. Those left are overworked to the point that they are failing to provide even basic care. In Edmonton, in my Mother’s care home alone, we have documented multiple cases of neglect, including but not limited to;

Pressure sores, open infections, osteomyelitis, dehydration, lack of nutrition, lack of sanitation, lack of primary physician interaction, changes to medication without consent or physician’s knowledge, removal of visitation rights (supported illegally by the Edmonton Zone Medical Officer), isolation of residents with cognitive impairments contrary to the PHA., forced use of masking and shields, contrary to the PHA, and more. 

I have said before, there will be a reckoning for this egregious malpractice and misfeasance which has and is continuing to result in suffering and death far beyond the risk posed by any virus. Tried and tested outbreak protocols were in place for decades at care homes before COVID19. There is a reason the current highly questionable practices have never been used like this before.

Really, it’s very simple. Either this is an incredibly deadly virus and none of us should ever leave our homes… or those in power know it is not, and all the measures taken, in effect, have been little more than healthcare theatre.

Currently we have unwarranted, unmanageable and unreasonable lockdown measures in place keeping families from being able to visit their loved ones all while the province is transferring sick patients into care homes and contributing to the spread of this virus.

Our loved ones cannot be played as pawns in a game of political point-scoring. The appearance of care is not actually caring. It’s time for honesty, transparency and, as per Jason Kenney’s “Path Forward”, one that restores real health solutions for all. All Canadians have a right to a range of treatment options with the freedom to make an informed choice based on an analysis of the risks they are willing to take. Especially those in care homes who have so little life left.   

(More regarding this story will come out in the future as details are allowed to be released. Alberta healthcare professionals assisted in the creation of this article.)