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Hospital overcrowding: Nurses call on Victoria to reverse the budgetary policies that forced the closure of beds and facilities
Royal Columbian and other hospitals need more resources, not
a new financing scheme that would put a dollar sign on patients
Solutions to the overcrowding crisis at Royal Columbian and other hospitals require the provincial government to reverse the direction it began six years ago, when it forced its new health authorities to close thousands of acute and long term care beds and tried to freeze health authority budgets.
Nurses hope the government will signal that change in next week's provincial budget, by providing stable, adequate long term funding to health authorities so they can meet the demands of a growing and aging population.
"That's the only way the government can eliminate serious overcapacity problems caused by the lack of beds and resources to provide quality care for patients," says Debra McPherson, president of the BC Nurses' Union. "Overcapacity exacerbates serious workload concerns for nurses not only in acute care hospitals, but also in the community and in long term care."
Melanie Leckovic, an emergency room nurse who is co-chair of BCNU's Simon Fraser Region says "the answer has nothing to do with introducing a new funding scheme that puts a dollar sign on patients, a model that has caused serious instability and dislocation in Britain.
"Instead of dabbling with these market-based projects as promised in the Throne Speech, the government should be adding new beds and building more facilities as the Fraser Health Authority has outlined in its long term projections. Otherwise, the workload problems of nurses will only get worse, and all the health authorities will have an even harder time recruiting and retaining the staff needed to care for patients."
Until last year the authorities received budget increases from Victoria averaging little more than three per cent a year, which was barely enough to keep up with inflation. Last year's increase hasn't begun to undo the damage.
For example, the government's budget policies forced the Fraser Health Authority to:
- Close St. Mary's Hospital (83 beds)
- Close 48 beds at Royal Columbian Hospital
- Close acute care and intensive care at Delta Hospital (31 beds)
- Close 59 beds at Surrey Memorial
- Close 48 beds at Langley Memorial
- Close maternity, ICU and 20 medical beds at Mission Memorial Hospital
- And to close 23 beds at Chilliwack Hospital
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