"BETRAYAL FOR THE COMMUNITY"
Nurses appalled at VIHA scheme to close long term care beds
Nurses are appalled the Vancouver Island Health Authority — despite long waiting lists — is closing public nursing home beds, and forcing current residents to move into new facilities built and owned by private for-profit businesses.
The scheme, announced just last week, is causing huge disruption for residents, as well as for the nurses who provide the care. Some of the approximately 35 Registered Nurses at the facilities will be losing their jobs for the second time in a matter of months, following an earlier VIHA move to change the model of long term care delivery.
"It's hard to imagine a more disrespectful, disruptive way of treating seniors and the nurses who are critical to their health and well-being," says Jo Taylor, chair of the BC Nurses' Union's Pacific Rim region. "This is not about making things better for seniors; it's mostly about cost-cutting and turning over the delivery of long term care to private for-profit businesses, subsidized by taxpayers. It will make the delivery of long term care even worse."
For example, in Duncan — where there are already 130 seniors waiting for a long term care bed — the scheme will close the 94—bed publicly owned Cowichan Lodge. The residents are to be moved to the new privately-owned Sunridge Place which is to have 160 complex care beds, leaving a continuing critical bed shortage for the community.
"This is a huge betrayal for the community and for the nurses at Cowichan District Hospital," says CDH nurse Brenda Hill. "For years, whenever we've raised the issue of lack of places to send people needing long term care they've told us 'don't worry, 160 new beds are on the way.' So what do they do as the 160 new beds are set to open? They move to close the 94 beds at Cowichan Lodge. It's just appalling."
Hill says laid off nurses seeking employment at Sunridge Place are out of luck. The day VIHA announced the closure of Cowichan Lodge, Sunridge closed off job applications.
The VIHA scheme is the latest example of how the BC Liberal government has backed away from its 2001 "New Era" promise to create 5000 "new intermediate and long term care beds". Instead, the government is including hundreds of much cheaper assisted living spaces within those 5,000 beds, as well as units in private apartments for which they are providing rent subsidies.
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