The City of Vernon will throw its full weight behind efforts to ease hospital congestion. Council voted unanimously Monday to support the Purple Ribbon campaign that has been launched by physicians and nurses to pressure the government for more acute care beds at Vernon Jubilee Hospital. “We need beds in there now,” said Mayor Wayne Lippert. The city will join forces with campaign organizers to consider options to promote the community’s needs, and it will also lobby the government and the Interior Health Authority directly. A link to the Purple Ribbon campaign will also be added to the city’s website. “It’s important that we show a united front,” said Coun. Shawn Lee. VJH is funded for 148 acute-care beds but the number of patients is regularly over that number. Two shelled-in floors in the patient care tower are designated for possible future acute care use, but no funding has been guaranteed by the government. It could cost about $10 million to develop each of the shelled-in floors for use by patients, and then $10 million each annually to operate the floors. “Eventually they have to find this money,” said Coun. Patrick Nicol, adding that while the new tower is a positive step, more needs to be done for health care. “Let’s finish this off and we’ll have the kind of hospital the province wants us to have.” During a presentation to council Monday, the B.C. Nurses Union stated that a lack of acute care beds has led to patients being in halls and surgeries cancelled. “Patient care is being compromised,” said nurse Russell Hnatiuk of bed sores, infections and a lack of privacy. And Hnatiuk is concerned the situation will get worse. “When we move into the new tower, there will be six fewer beds than we have now,” he said, adding that funding is needed so construction of the two shelled-in floors can begin immediately. Coun. Bob Spiers encouraging all North Okanagan residents to back the Purple Ribbon campaign. “We need to encourage people in the public to e-mail the health minister, the premier, our MLA and our MP,” he said.
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They wanted to draw attention to code purple conditions at Vernon Jubilee Hospital, but nurses were left seeing red. And what particularly upset some of them was a delivery van sitting where they had wanted to park their campaign bus during a half-hour rally at the hospital Friday. “We were told we can’t park there because of traffic,” said a representative from the B.C. Nurses Union. The bottom line: the nurses were insinuating that the Interior Health Authority wasn’t taking the union’s concerns seriously and didn’t want any visible reminders of the virtually steady congestion that has forced patients into halls and surgeries to be cancelled. The nurses are also now waiting to see how long it takes before a giant purple ribbon disappears from a tree in front of VJH. It apparently took considerable convincing before IHA officials approved the ribbon, and Christine Sorensen, BCNU regional chairperson, is hoping administration won’t rip it down. “It would concern me that they aren’t seeing the level of safe patient care with the same eyes as staff,” she said. Knowing some of the VJH management first hand, I would say that comment is unfair. Those on the ground have tried to create efficiencies along with physicians and nurses, and they don’t hide the fact that conditions aren’t ideal. But, unfortunately, they are just cogs in an endlessly bureaucratic process that first begins in Kelowna at IHA’s head office and then ends in Victoria where the health minister and the bean counters decide what gets funding and what doesn’t. And the higher up you go in the system, the more removed the decision-makers are from what’s happening on the ground. They may have never been to Vernon, let alone had to sit on a commode in a hallway, with only a thin curtain separating them from the rest of the world. Imagine waiting for surgery for months and having it cancelled at the last minute. It’s highly unlikely Health Minister Mike de Jong would tolerate such conditions for his family, but the government’s lack of action suggests it’s OK for North Okanagan residents. It is time for de Jong to hear first-hand of the often painful and troubling circumstances that have faced patients and health care providers. If you are interested in contacting him, here are his particulars:
Michael de Jong Minister of Health Room 337, Parliament Buildings Victoria, B.C., V8V 1X4
E-mail: hlth.minister@gov.bc.ca
While you’re at it, drop a line to Vernon-Monashee MLA Eric Foster:
3209 31st Avenue Vernon, B.C., V1T 2H2 Phone: 250-503-3600 Email: eric.foster.mla@leg.bc.ca
Construction crews are still on duty at VJH and now is the time to have them develop the two shelled-in floors into acute care wards. Once patients are in the tower, any work will become challenging, particularly because the intensive care unit is just one floor below.
- E-Mail premier@gov.bc.ca
- E-Mail mayesc1@parl.gc.ca (M.P. Colin Mayes)
- Email: hlth.minister@gov.bc.ca
- eric.foster.mla@leg.bc.ca
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