Blair Canniff, and all Albertans, deserve so much better.

The CBC’s lead story on The National Friday night from Edmonton reporter Julia Wong very well sends shivers up spines of any hospital patient waiting to be released and moving into a long-term care home.

Canniff sustained a stroke, and now uses a wheelchair because the left side of his body is paralyzed.

He was in the Royal Alexandra Hospital and was released recently. Canniff was told by a social worker he was being taken to a long-term care home.

He was taken from the Royal Alex by cab to a hotel south of the city near the Edmonton International Airport.

This piqued my interest, because I was in hospital a little over a year ago. I live with a disability and use a wheelchair.

A day before I moved I was told I would be taken by ambulance — which I was — to my new home.

When I arrived mid-morning I was introduced to staff who would personalize my needs.

I chatted with the dietitian about what food I like, and the physiotherapist, who, that day, designed a program for me to start in the centre’s gymnasium the very next week.

The occupational therapist popped by to see if I needed modified equipment because of new mobility challenges from my hospital stay.

The centre’s chaplain said hello and we got to talk about the one thing that gives me everything — my Christian faith.

But this is, absolutely, not about me

It’s about Canniff being shipped by cab, not ambulance, arriving at a hotel check-in: a muster point for vacationers and business people.

Not for freshly released hospital patients with a new lifestyle which comes with countless questions, concerns and worries.

The CBC story says Canniff was given fast food to eat.

What about his dietary requirements?

Were they neglected, too?

I’d bet Grampa Tait’s homestead Canniff didn’t meet with a physio, OT, and chaplains at the hotel.

Wong reported that a homecare worker came to check on Canniff “a few times a day.”

That is atrocious.

What if, as someone said in the piece, he fell out of his wheelchair?

Bed sores?

Was Canniff turned a few times at night?

What if he needed to be changed because of an incontinence issue?

And here’s what I cannot comprehend: the architects of this colossal train wreck, Alberta Health Services, did not have the common decency — which is at stake here — to speak to Wong personally.

Instead, they delivered a written statement so they could conveniently control the narrative.

How cowardly.

Listen: I understand the population is getting bigger and care homes are at a minimum.

But I am reminded of something a very wise man who had dedicated his life to working for charities in Canada told me about the population boom.

“The more people in the world, the greater capacity we have to care for one another,” he said.

That did not happen for Blair Canniff. And that’s a bloody shame.