Media are welcome to attend any session of the conference, including Ralph Nader’s speech on Friday. Journalists who wish to arrange interviews with conference speakers or participants need to contact Bill Moore-Kilgannon at 780-420-0471 or billmk@pialberta.org.

NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Monday, January 16, 2012

Ralph Nader to be keynote speaker
Feb. 24 at Beyond Acute Care Conference

EDMONTON, Alberta

World-renowned consumer rights advocate Ralph Nader will be the keynote speaker on Friday, Feb. 24, at a major conference in Edmonton on provincial and national policies needed to ensure fair and compassionate care of seniors and the disabled.

The two-day conference – called “Beyond Acute Care: Covering Seniors and the Disabled with the Medicare Umbrella” – will close on Saturday, Feb. 25, with remarks by Maude Barlow, National Chair of the Council of Canadians and a tireless defender of our country’s national system of public health care.

“The impetus for this conference grew out of the concerns raised by a number of seniors’ groups about the serious deficits in Alberta’s and Canada’s public health care system when patients, especially seniors and the disabled, move beyond the need for acute care,” said Noel Somerville, chair of Public Interest Alberta’s Senior’s Task Force.

With the assistance of PIA, plus unions and organizations that represent front-line health care workers who share seniors’ concerns about the need for better and more extensive public health care services for the aged, and for the disabled, these groups have played a key role in organizing the Feb. 24-25 conference, Somerville said.

Groups involved in the conference include Public Interest Alberta’s Seniors Task Force, the Alberta Council on Aging, the Alberta Retired Teachers’ Association and Seniors United Now, as well as the United Nurses of Alberta, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Health Sciences Association of Alberta and the Alberta Federation of Labour.

The cost of the conference, at the Crowne Plaza Chateau Lacombe Conference Centre, 10111 Bellamy Hill, in Edmonton, is modest and the event is open to the public, Somerville said.
He said the fee for the conference is $75, with lunch included on Saturday. There is a special $50 rate for seniors and low-income participants. In addition, those who cannot attend the conference on Saturday but want to hear Nader speak on Friday night may do so for $25.

Conference participants must register and can begin the process by visiting the conference website at BeyondAcuteCare.ca, where a registration form and additional registration information is available.

Media are also welcome to attend any session of the conference, including Nader’s speech on Friday. Journalists who wish to arrange interviews with conference speakers or participants need to contact Bill Moore-Kilgannon at 780-420-0471 or billmk@pialberta.org.

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