Talk of bed closures worries union rep
Kamloops Daily News March 29, 2006
Although Royal Inland Hospital has had bouts of congestion with long-term-care patients with nowhere to go, six beds set aside for psychogeriatric patients have been vacant for a year at Overlander Extended Care.

As well, 25 more beds there are being closed to make room for people with brain injuries, a BC Nurses' Union representative charged Tuesday.

Deb Ducharme said news of the closure of 25 residential-care beds came as a surprise to her and Overlander staff.

"I have many concerns about that.  The few RNs left at Overlander were told there were no further changes coming.  That in of itself is a concern for me," she said.

"They closed 14 beds a couple of years ago and converted them to six psychogeriatric beds.  Those beds have been sitting empty at Overlander for over a year. …Now they're talking about closing another 25 when we desperately need them."

Ducharme attributed the vacant beds to the fact the Hillside Centre behind Royal Inland was opening and there seemed to be confusion about whether psychogeriatric patients would go there or to Overlander.

Hillside Centre is serving as a provincial and regional facility, and is assigning 25 of it 44 beds for a B.C. neuropsychiatry program involving patients with degenerative neurological disease or brain injury.

While the seniors at Overlander are in the later stages of their lives and require mostly maintenance, the brain injured patients will need rehabilitation so they can return to the community, she said.

"It's a very specialized rehab," she said.  "I don't say staff can't be trained for it, but we have to be consulted.  This has been approved behind closed doors, approved by the board, with no consultation."