Alberta’s NDP is accusing the PC Party of forcing health service facilities to put cost cutting ahead of patient safety.

The Party’s candidate for Edmonton-Calder, David Eggen, released documents and images that show Alberta Health Services (AHS) reclassifying dialysis waste as general garbage rather than biomedical waste.

Eggen calls the move “bargain bin medicine”.

“The PC government has taken almost a billion dollars out of the health budget already and as a result hospitals are scrambling to look for savings,” he said during a media conference at the Misericordia hospital Saturday morning.

“We know from the workers, the people that leaked this information, that this is compromising the level of safety of both patients and of workers.

“This is blood products in tubes and it is very easy for that blood to escape. That is why they came up with the bin policy in the first place. But now they are downgrading that exponentially to garbage bags, enhanced garbage bags.”

An AHS spokesperson told CTV News in an e-mail that their policy is safe and “complies to CSA standards”.

According to AHS’s Shelley Willsey “items that have come in contact with blood, but do not contain blood, can be disposed of in general waste.

“Any items containing blood continue to be disposed of in biomedical waste.”

Willsey did acknowledge that cost was a factor in the decision.

“Disposal of the dialysis system in biomedical waste is more than four times the cost of general waste disposal,” she wrote in the e-mail.

Heath Minister Stephen Mandel said he expected those in the healthcare system to be mindful of spending and safety.

“Our healthcare system should make every effort to be as efficient as possible but it should make a greater effort to make sure safety and security is the primary objective of any exercise.”

Storeshaw also cited online policy documents from the Saskatoon Health Region, the Peel Region, Public Health Ontario and the NWT Infection Prevention and Control Manual 2012 that indicate dialysis equipment not polluted with blood can be treated as general waste.

Eggen said the leaked AHS presentation was from a meeting held about a month ago.

He added that by releasing the information he hoped it would prompt a review of safety practices.

With files from Veronica Jubinville