Letter to VDTA from Tom Christensen AND Response to Tom Christensen by VDTA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 4, 2008

The Vernon and Districts Taxpayers Association's response to Tom Christensen's email re: Vernon Jubilee Hospital Petition

Mr. Christensen, thank you for submitting the Petition of 18,000+ signatures to the Minister of Health Services. The Taxpayers of the North Okanagan - Shuswap shall be looking forward to their petition concerns being addressed expeditiously, efficiently, with full transparency and accountability. Your assertions that the Vernon and Districts Taxpayers Association (VDTA) statements are "in most cases inaccurate" fly in the face of accurate research and facts. Even though the two extra floors at the Vernon Jubilee Hospital (VJH) in the Tower are welcome, this will not help until 2011. We need action now.

VJH is still Code Purple every third day or so. 138 acute care beds refers to the 125 funded beds plus 13 temporarily funded beds on 2E. Are you suggesting that these temporary beds are now permanently funded? Please advise. VJH is on average over-capacity everyday as the average census last year was 139 and Code Purple is usually 150+, which is 9% over-capacity. The recommended occupancy is 85 to 90% not 100 to 109%! It was indeed fortunate that there was not a Code Purple when there was a carbon monoxide leak at Tolko and 29 workers were brought to Emergency all at once with a true Code Orange--mass casualty--situation. However, the Hospital was in Code Purple the very day before! We are teetering on the edge as far as safety goes and that is a view of doctors.

Penticton Hospital and Vernon have the same Code Purple protocol. Penticton had zero Cope Purples in 2007 - 2008. Like VJH, Penticton has some temporarily funded beds--20 of them. If you add their permanently funded beds (129) this is 149. You say we have 138 acute beds--well, Penticton has 149! You claim there is no funding disparity, so why does Vernon, that serves a population of 140,000 have 138 beds when Penticton, that serves 80,000, has 149? The difference in Code Purple, 50 versus zero, illustrates the error in your calculations.

You say that your Government is providing 106 new residential beds. However, with the closure of the Alexander Wing, we are losing 49 residential beds according to the "Admitting Department", so that should be taken into account when there is talk about opening other residential beds. Also, one residential bed does not equal one acute care bed. You are equating a residential bed with an acute care bed. Also, would you also be good enough to respond to our request for full disclosure as to the precise involvement of Infusion Health, a for-profit private company. Why is Infusion involved in our publicly-funded healthcare assets? Your Government does not have a mandate to privatize our healthcare system and as the Federal Canada Health Act stands, private medicine is illegal. Finally, all the caregivers and patients at Vernon Jubilee Hospital know that the foregoing facts are correct.

Antony Stamboulieh
On behalf of the Vernon and Districts Taxpayers' Association
Contact 250-260-1082
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Dear Mr. Stamboulieh,

Thank-you for your letter of June 6, 2008. I confirm my regrets that I was unable to attend the presentation of the petition in person and thank-you for providing it to my assistant Min Sidhu. I very much would have liked the opportunity to be there but would have had to cancel an engagement in Cherryville that had been scheduled weeks in advance and was attended by close to 50 Cherryville residents. It is unfortunate that you did not contact my office before scheduling your presentation as I don’t believe it would have been too difficult to find a time that would have allowed me to attend had that been important to you.

I am pleased to advise you that I have personally delivered the petition to the Honourable George Abbott, Minister of Health Services, at this office in Victoria on June 25.

I have had many discussions with the Interior Health Authority over the past few months with respect to services at Vernon Jubilee Hospital, including the planning for future expansion. The statements regarding current funding and services that you have expressed in your letter are in most cases inaccurate. Of most direct relevance to the petition itself, I must correct your statement that only 125 acute care beds are currently funded as the number of beds currently funded at VJH is 138. As you may already know, with the addition on 6 more palliative care beds at Hospice House in June and the opening of 106 new seniors care beds in the coming weeks, it is expected that the pressures on acute care beds at VJH will decrease. Nevertheless, I will be closely monitoring these developments and having ongoing discussions with both IHA and the Ministry of Health. I would be happy to arrange for IHA to respond to any specific questions about current funding and services that you may have.

I suspect you have already done so, but I suggest that you also provide a copy of the petition to the North Okanagan Columbia Shuswap Hospital District as the expansion of Vernon Jubilee Hospital is a shared funding responsibility between the province and the Hospital District.

Sincerely,
Tom Christensen
MLA Okanagan-Vernon