Cleaning staff at the Vernon Jubilee Hospital won‘t face privatization now that Interior Health has scrapped the idea of allowing potential developers bidding on its expansion project to hire their own cleaning crew. On Tuesday Interior Health announced it has reached the request for proposals phase from development teams to design, build, finance and maintain the expansion of Vernon Hospital and Kelowna General Hospital. Three teams were short-listed after responding to the request for qualifications for the expansions in June. Originally, housekeeping was an aspect the winning firm could be responsible for at the the hospital.
Murray Ramsden, CEO of Interior Health, said now cleaning will continue to be provided by IH employees. “When we went through those reviews of the respondents, we were not satisfied they met all of our requirements for housekeeping so we decided not to include that aspect in the request for proposals that went out yesterday.”
Excluding housekeeping staff from the scope of the project means job security for more than 250 workers who were concerned about the public-private partnership, said Judy Darcy, speaking for the Hospital Employees Union. “The decision to keep the current skilled, experienced cleaning staff working at these hospitals is a prudent move by the health authority that will benefit Okanagan patients now and over the long run.” The three development teams who responded to the request for qualifications were short-listed and asked to respond to the request for proposals. The three teams are made up of several local and international companies. The project proposal will still include the option to privatize facility maintenance – workers who take care of lighting, power and other mechanical operations. Darcy said that could affect 50 trades and maintenance workers. “Obviously we‘re disappointed that they did not exclude these highly skilled and experienced workers from the RFP, but we hope to change their minds during the procurement process.”
Ramsden said after teams submit their proposals in February, Interior Health will make the final decision about including maintenance in the contract. A team will be selected for the work early next year and construction is expected to begin shortly afterwards. The project includes the addition of a tower to the Vernon Hospital for diagnostics and treatment and the expansion of the Kelowna General Outpatient Hospital and its emergency department. The target for completion is 2010. Ramsden said the next few months and years will be busy, but he‘s looking forward to it. “It‘s an exciting time and I think it‘s going to be great for health services in the valley, not only for the next five years . . . but also for the long term.”
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