Don't hold bake sales to build hospitals
The Vancouver Sun - Mon 21 Apr 2008
| Page: A12 |
Byline: Janice Buchanan |
| Section: Editorial |
Source: Vancouver Sun |
A large billboard in front of Peace Arch Hospital announces that 56 new beds will be opening in the spring of 2008. For several years, the hospital has been operating at well over 100-per-cent capacity. Consequently, with no available beds on the wards, patients are cared for on stretchers in the back hallway of the emergency department, lined up at the entrance with ambulance attendants, in overflow beds in the back of the busy surgical daycare department and admitted to hallway beds on the units.
The announcement of additional beds is great news.
Sadly, the truth is there will be no increase in beds. The patients will be moved from existing beds into the renovated units and the old wards will be closed. The reason is the lack of an operating budget.
The money for the renovation was raised in the community by the hospital foundation. It is unacceptable that the provincial government and the Fraser Health Authority have not committed to budgeting the dollars needed to open these desperately needed beds. It is an outrage that beds at Peace Arch Hospital will sit empty while patients are being cared for in hallways.
Perhaps the misleading billboard should be revised to read: "56 new beds will open, 56 old beds will close, total bed increase 0."
Janice Buchanan
Registered nurse
White Rock
Idnumber: 200804210041
Edition: Final
Story Type: Letter
Length: 222 words
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