On Monday evening, Premier Klein will make a province-wide television appearance. He will use the opportunity to reassure people. He will say that there is no reason to worry about the future of Medicare. And he will tell Albertans that everything is "okay" with our health care system.

But, as the leaders of assocations representing thousands of health care workers in this province, we can tell you that everything is definitely NOT "okay."

Our health care system is in critical condition. Every day, our members go to work in hospitals and other health care facilities across this province. And every day they see grave problems that have been caused by reckless cutbacks and poorly planned down-sizing.

The quality of our health care system has declined so noticably and so rapidly that we can no longer remain silent. That's why we have taken the unusual step of issuing a joint statement. We feel we have a responsibility to tell Albertans what's going on inside our hospitals. We feel we have an obligation to let them know what's happening to the system of public health care that we all cherish.

The Premier and his supporters would like Albertans to believe that the cuts have been harmless. When they first started cutting, the government said that down-sizing could be accomplised without undermining quality. And, like most Albertans, we wanted to believe those promises. Unfortunatley things haven't turned out the way the Premier said they would.

The cuts have caused a long list of serious problems:

There's a shortage of hospital beds; waiting lists are growing dangerously long; hundreds of highly-trained health care professionals are leaving the province in frustration; standards of cleanliness in hospitals are in decline; great disparities in service are developing between regions; and extra fess charged for home-care are making it more and more difficult for low and middle-income Albertans to afford proper medical care.

The bottom line is that the cuts are putting patients at risk. Every day, patients are being sent home too soon after surgery because there isn't enough room in the hospital. Every day nurses, hospital technicians and support staff are run off their feet. And every day the quality of service declines a little more.

The situation has gotten so bad that life-saving procedures like heart transplants are being cancelled for lack of staff.

On top of the cuts the Alberta government is attacking the very foundations of public health care. By allowing more and more private clinincs, they have opened the door for a two-tier health care system --one for the rich and one for everybody else.

At the same time, the Alberta government has attacked the basic priniples of Medicare as outlined in the Canada Health Act.

They have attacked the principles of universality and accessibility by cutting services and imposing ever-increasing fees and premiums.

They have attacked the principle of portability by moving towards a system that is clearly inferior to health care provided in other provinces.

They have attacked the principle of comprehensiveness by de-insuring many services that professionals would describe as "medically necessary."

And they have attacked the principle of public administration by opening the door to two-tier medicine.

But we did not come here today simply to complain. We are not blind defenders of the status quo. We believe that changes were necessary. But we feel the system can be reformed without gutting it.

In our written statement, we list several ways the government can save money on health care without undermining quality and accessibility. We talk about alternative methods for paying doctors and we point out that money could be saved by introducing new models for service delivery.

But the main point we make is that there are alternatives. The government's slash-and-burn approach is not the only approach. And it is certainly not in the best interests of Albertans.

As people who both work within the system and who are committed to maintaining high standards of care, we have decided the time has come to say "enough is enough." So, on behalf of health care providers from across the province, we make the following recommendations:

First, we urge the government to embrace the basic principles of Medicare and outlaw the practice of charging "facility fees."

We urge the government to impose an immediate moratorium on health care cuts. The system has already been stretched to the breaking point.

We urge the government to reinvest its budget surplus in health care. With the governent's current budget surplus there is no longer any good reason why the health care system should be strangled of funds.

We urge the government to reject two-tier medicine. Access to health care should not be determined by the thickness of your wallet.

We urge the government abandon privatization and contracting-out as primary tools for reforming the health care system. Albertans deserve high-quality care, delivered by properly trained health care professionals.

We urge the government to look for alternative methods of saving money -- methods that will reduce costs without sacrificing quality.

Finally, we urge the government to consult extensively with all health care providers before proceeding any further with changes to our health care system. Our 50,000 members are on the front lines of health care. They have a tremendous store of knowledge that the government can -- and should -- draw upon.

As responsible health care providers, we pledge to pursue the goals outlined in this statement. We will continue to pressure the government to accept the idea that public health care is a basic right of Canadian citizenship. We will fight to make sure the government lives up to its moral obligation to ensure that all Canadians have access to affordable, publicly-funded, high-quality health care.

We urge all Albertans to join us in our campaign to perserve Medicare for ourselves, our children and our community.