The B.C. Nurses’ Union is protesting a reorganization at Royal Jubilee and Victoria General hospitals, set to start in January, saying its members will be replaced with cheap labour.
The so-called “care delivery model redesign” was contentious long before it was first rolled out last month in Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, where, last year, nurses worked 30,000 hours of overtime, costing nearly $1.7 million, according to Island Health.
Island-wide nurse overtime totalled 268,136 hours at a cost of $17.6 million — a figure Island Health says it aims to reduce by better allocating nurses’ time under a new approach.
The new care delivery model, from Island Health’s point of view, is a move toward a team approach that will allow registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and health care aides to work better together and focus on their skills — enhancing patient care and the work environment for nurses.
But the union says the health authority is replacing highly skilled and trained nurses with cheaper labour — unlicensed care aides — which will put patient safety at risk.
Union president Debra McPherson denounced the plan Tuesday as “disappearing care.”
The union said more than 122 registered nurses and licensed practical nurses’ positions at the two Greater Victoria hospitals will be replaced by care aides. Island Health’s figures are not as high. It said that nurses will be absorbed into available jobs; they will face less overtime and not have to do work that could be carried out by less-skilled workers.
Island Health’s figures show there will be up to five times as many health care aides at Victoria General after the change.
“Island Health claims nurses will not lose their jobs, but their positions within each ward will be gone — the jobs they were doing will no longer exist,” the union said.
Nurses argue they will be put in more supervisory roles for a greater number of patients and will be less able to provide assessment and rapid intervention for patients in life-threatening situations.
