Union boss says new patient care tower will be no help with increase in beds
The BC Nurses Union is demanding action on continued overcrowding at Vernon Jubilee Hospital. Union president Debra MacPherson says 192 patients were admitted Wednesday night into a 148-bed hospital. She says it's a chronic problem. ``The nurses (are) reporting that they're just simply reeling from one crisis to the next,'' says MacPherson. ``This was so bad that they could not even enter all the patients into the computer system properly.'' MacPherson also says vital supplies were lacking. And, the union boss says the Interior Health Authority's claims that the new patient care tower will solve overcrowding problems is not correct. ``The reality is that they're not walling in the whole shell of the new building so really it won't in any increase in beds whatsoever.'' MacPherson says IHA needs to take immediate steps to deal with the matter. The nurses also claim there is a dire lack of of residential care beds and community care support in the area which exacerbates the overcrowding problem. MacPherson says home care nurses and adult day centres are needed, anything that that keep seniors well and healthy and at home.
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