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K-Bro to take over linen, laundry service from AHS in September

Jul 27, 2021 | 9:32 AM

Beginning in September of 2021, laundry and linen services at Alberta Health Services (AHS) will transition to K-Bro Linen Systems.

The transition will begin in the rural parts of the Calgary Zone, followed by the South Zone, Central Zone and finally the North Zone.

“K-Bro Linen Systems has a proven track record of providing high-quality laundry services,” says Dr. Verna Yiu, President and CEO, AHS.

“AHS is looking forward to working with them to ensure the long-term sustainability of laundry service in our province.”

A request for proposal process started in April 2021 led to AHS awarding the contract to K-Bro, which will provide linen services to the parts of the province where the service is not provided in-house.

K-Bro already provides this service to more than two-thirds of the the province, including the urban Calgary area, Edmonton, Hinton and Edson.

The transition s expected to take 34 weeks, with K-Bro expected to provide linen service throughout the province by April 1, 2022.

The transition will impact roughly 334 full time , part time and casual employees, but AHS says in a release that it’s committed to working with them and their union to “explore potential options in accordance with the collective agreement.”

AHS adds in the release that maintaining the existing in-house services would require more than $38-million in upgrades, or an investment of more than $100-million to build new modern linen systems across the province.