By Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star - June 08, 2008
A grassroots campaign protesting conditions at Vernon Jubilee Hospital has been embraced by the public. Almost 18,000 people signed a petition demanding the provincial government increase the number of acute care beds, operating rooms and nurses at VJH to address over-crowding. “Taxpayers are no longer prepared to put up with being treated like cattle and forced to sleep in corridors and closets,” said Tony Stamboulieh, with the Vernon Taxpayers Association, which started the petition in April. The final results were revealed to media and concerned residents in front of Vernon city hall Friday. “We shall remain vigilant and the issue will not go away. If we are ignored, there will be ramifications at the next election,” said Stamboulieh. Among those present for the media conference was Adrian Dix, health critic for the provincial NDP. “This is a very significant number of people,” Dix said of the petition. “It reflects the broad view of people that they have been let down by their elected representatives. The minister of health and the premier are wrong and the public is right about VJH.”The petition was circulated throughout the North Okanagan and was supported by most municipal councils, including in Vernon. “Health care is an issue and the petition reinforces everything we have been saying to government,” said Mayor Wayne Lippert. Alan Hill, an Okanagan Landing resident, found himself in a hall while at VJH for knee replacement in May. Hill says he discovered that some rooms are used for storage and not patients. “The beds are there only if they opened them.” According to Deb Ducharme, with the B.C. Nurses Union, beds have been closed and replaced by offices and storage. “They have places where they could open beds,” she said.
In a letter to Okanagan Vernon MLA Tom Christensen, the association claims there is a funding discrepancy. “If VJH were funded proportionally as compared to Penticton, the hospital would have had 160 acute care beds in 2007/08, and the occupancy rate would have been 87 per cent, which is the recommended occupancy level for patient safety,” it states. “Instead, with only 125 acute care beds, we were an average of 11 per cent over capacity for the whole year and an average occupancy of 139 beds. In addition, VJH was code purple, meaning 20 per cent over capacity or 150-plus occupancy, 140 times in 2008.” The letter also states that Vernon is the only regional hospital in IHA not to have an MRI machine. “In addition, we are calling on the Campbell government to provide for acute care beds and additional operating rooms in the design of the new diagnostic and treatment tower.”
Christensen was not able to be at the association’s press conference because of a prior commitment in Cherryville. But he did have an assistant available to pick up the petition. “I appreciate that the petition has been undertaken and I look forward to looking at it,” he said. However, Christensen denies suggestions that VJH is being treated differently than any other facility. “I have spent considerable time discussing health care needs, including acute care beds, with IHA and the Ministry of Health,” he said, adding that statistics show that VJH’s funding is based on where patients come from. “The government is responding to what the challenges are.” Christensen also points out that the government has committed to an $81 million diagnostic and treatment tower, while there have been renovations to the emergency room and residential care beds have been opened. “I am confident that we have good facilities now and they will improve over the next three to four years,” said Christensen.
---------
Morning Star Editorial June 8 The public has spoken
North Okanagan residents have made it known loud and clear that they are fed up with conditions at Vernon Jubilee Hospital. A total of almost 18,000 people from across the region took pen to paper and signed a petition demanding that the provincial government take the situation at VJH, including, it seems like, almost daily code purples, seriously. It is not good enough for the Interior Health Authority and the provincial government to say that the matter of acute care beds is being looked at — that discussions are underway to possibly fund shelled-in space in the new diagnostic and treatment tower that could be used for beds sometime in the future. There is a critical need for beds now, and that situation will only get worse as the region's population grows and more pressure is placed on VJH. With construction of the tower expected to begin later this year, it is time for Victoria to financially commit to additional beds and to provide operational funds for nurses and other support staff. Whether the beds are in the new tower or in vacant space within the existing hospital, is irrelevant. All that matters is that a severe shortage of acute care beds be addressed. Health Minister George Abbott likes to brag about the $81 million investment in the new tower, and while it will have a significant impact on health care, it, quite frankly, is not enough. Now is the time for Abbott, Okanagan Vernon MLA Tom Christensen and IHA to acknowledge the problem and to actually do something about it. If they don't, they will continue to endure the wrath of the public.
No comments:
Post a Comment