How many doctors does it take to keep a hospital open in Saskatchewan?

Cypress Health Region vs. Saskatoon Health Region

Sounds like the start of a bad joke doesn’t it?

Well it’s in fact a very serious question.

The CEO in Cypress is saying about the Hospital in Leader: “Once we have received confirmation that we have two physicians who are licensed and ready to provide medical services in the community, there will be an emphasis on expediting the return to service date as soon as we can.” (Cypress Health Region Press Release March 25 - click on the pictures below to read the full release).

While Saskatoon Health Region representatives are saying it would take 3 physicians before Wakaw Hospital can be re-opened.

While this is confusing in and of itself, consider the fact that there are many communities with fewer than 3 permanent physicians that continue to have hospital beds, not a band-aid depot.

Enough to make you scratch your head…

 

Who Let the SCA’s Out?

Cypress Health Region
 

You might want to check out the latest initiative by Cypress Health Region.  

Ad from South West Booster, March 2011

In the recent edition of the South West Booster is the announcement of Information meetings to be held regarding Care Aide Careers.  

So they have finally discovered that they are short of Special Care Aides and Home Care Aides.  

Well, well. My question is whether they now realize why they are suffering from critical retention issues?  

Perhaps someone should remind them: the course is very expensive, it is not readily available in all communities, the work is physically laborious, compensation is well better in Alberta, particularly when you look at the hours of work (since forced changes) as these are undesirable and the seasoned staff are real tired of having no voice in the workplace. 

I am thinking management, SAHO and this government having been standing with the door open for quite some time.

Where’s The Funding?

Are rural hospitals being buried across Saskatchewan?

We have noticed that hospital closures are increasing, particularly in those communities with fewer than 3 doctors.

We are still working hard with communities to save their local hospitals.

What can you do to support rural hospitals in Saskatchewan?

How about sending a letter to the Minister of Health and asking him directly “Where’s The Funding”.

Help the communities stay strong in their fight. 

Add your voice to the many who want to maintain quality health care services.

Watch Dog Review of the Provincial Budget

$5.1 million for beer store owners.

 

$1.7 million for housing.

 

How much for health care workers in their last contract?

 

How much to address recruitment and retention of doctors so hospitals can stay open?

 

How much for PAIRS agreement so graduating doctors don't leave SK when they're done at the University of Sask?

 

Obviously there is a crisis in beer sales.  

 

Everyone else can just wait.

 

It's a dog gone shame.

Cypress Health Region – Swift Current Care Centre

Although I would like to update the watchdog with good news, regrettably I have none. 

My fear is that many of our care staff are now gone forever, with no replacement as the ongoing employer strategy. 

Between March 8 and March 17, we had only 2 days where we worked without nursing staff shortages. 

On March 8, we were short one Special Care Aide on days. 

On March 10 & 17 we worked short one Licensed Practical Nurse on days. 

These are our best examples. 

On March 12, we were short one Licensed Practical Nurse on days and down two Special Care Aides between our day and evening shifts. 

Worse yet on the 13^th of March, we worked short one Licensed Practical Nurse and one Special Care Aide on days and we worked short three Special Care Aides throughout the evening shifts.

It is getting worse each day and we predicted this would happen when the employer forced shift changes.  

How can our employer expect us to maintain quality care?  Our residents have personal care needs that we are not able to manage due to insufficient staffing levels…when will the family members of our residents begin to speak out?      

Working like a dog….

Cypress Health Region – Palliser Regional Care Centre

This was our start on Monday March 21, 2011 at the Palliser Regional Care Centre.

Short 1 Special Care Aide on second floor.

Short 2 Special Care Aides on third floor.

Short 1 Nurse on third floor and the other Nurse on third floor was working overtime.

What a day!!!!!!!!!

Giving the Dog a Bone?

Cypress Health Region
– Palliser Regional Care Centre 

We used to have real good food cooked in our kitchen that filled our building with a pleasant, wonderful just ‘baked’ aroma.  Well, no more of that.  Now our food is prepared off-site and delivered.  It is reheated before it is served. 

Food quality is at an all time low.  I wouldn’t even dream of feeding this to my pet.  There are clumps in the pureed potatoes, meat and vegetables.  It looks worse than it smells.  We throw out most of it because the residents don’t eat it and I don’t blame them.  The food system works so poorly that the food comes out piping hot.  Residents have been burned. 

When residents lose weight we are instructed to offer them Boost & Ensure…who really would enjoy 6 or 8 servings of this each day…every day, and for the rest of your life?  It is certainly not ‘customer’ service at Palliser. 

Doesn’t Make No Dog Gone Sense

Saskatoon Health Region – Wakaw Hospital

So, the reality is that SEIU-West sent a letter seeking the urgent attention of the Health Minister to keep the Wakaw Hospital open in December of 2010.  He replied to that letter two months later and provided great lip service to the newest and the brightest at the provincial Physician Recruitment Agency.  Today, our members and the residents of Wakaw (and the surrounding area) did NOT experience the end-product of good work, in terms of retention efforts.  Rather, they learned that Wakaw Hospital is closing on April 1st.

Get this, the public announcement letter from Saskatoon Health Region provided today is dated March 23 and comes on letterhead with a logo: Healthiest People – Healthiest Communities – Exceptional Service.  What is the message here?  Do you really think that the residents of Wakaw (and the surrounding area) feel like they will be getting exceptional service in the future?

To see the letter click on the picture below:

Do they think we’re a pack of wild dogs?

Cypress Health Region – Shaunavon Hospital and Care Centre
 
It’s ok it seems to send managers to Alaska so they can come back and teach us about team work.
 
We know all about Team work – we work short on a regular basis. Team Work is how our daily work gets done.

Real team work is the element that’s missing at the manager level – or we wouldn’t be working short!

Oh, and let’s not forget that increase of some 34% in their wages… What did you and I get?

Chasing our Tail Again...

Saskatoon Health Region

Recently, a member at my workplace submitted a vacation request for two days of vacation on a weekend that according to the master rotation she was scheduled to work. But guess what, the employer did not honour the master rotation, and the manager changed this members scheduled days to days off, and approved vacation for days the member did not want.  When questioned, the manager insisted that it was the employers right!

But that's not all, this same member has encountered a different manager who denied her a position at another site.  The second manager stated that the member is not eligible to be considered for the position, because she is not consistently below the peer group average when it comes to sick time usage.  Wow!

Yet get this, three months ago this same member had applied for another position and was denied it too. At the time of the posting, the member was above the peer group average, but the manager said to our member "we would love to have you, if only you could reduce your sick time usage."

Since this time, the member has done all she can to reduce her sick time, recognized what is making her ill, and fixed the problem.  Now that she accomplished  what many people never do; she has recognized her problem and dealt with it, yet this employer stops her in her tracks again, and tells her 'oh no not good enough'.  They phone her at home, and bring her to tears, they make her feel unvalued, unsupported and unwanted.  

In short, nothing will be good enough for this manager.

Stay tuned for more up-dates, these managers feed off each other to do harm and what is so sad...they enjoy it.

It's a dog wash!

Cypress Health Region - Palliser Regional Care Centre

Back in the good old days, when we were able to provide our residents with a 'real' home life experience, we also used to provide laundry service in-house. There used to be a separate bag for BM (means: 'bowel movement') cloths and these did not get mixed in with the cloths we used to wash our residents.

Now the separate bag concept does not work with our Regina laundry system: so chances are that the wash cloth we use to wash a residents face today was used on someone else's backside a day or two earlier. Isn't that disgusting?

We refer to the good old days because this was avoided and we were usually NEVER short of laundry supplies. Now it is routine that we are short of supplies including...bibs, nighties, towels, facecloths, sheets & soakers.

Another Senior Management efficiency!

Well, it looks like there is no real plan in Gull Lake...

Cypress Health Region - Gull Lake Special Care Centre

Yet another community falls victim to a “temporary disruption of services” on Wednesday March 9, 2011 as this was posted:

Given that the government and the Health Region have no real plan, the residents in rural Saskatchewan need to time their emergency very carefully and avoid these temporary disruptions.  Yikes!

Oh Where, Oh Where have our Care Providers Gone…Oh Where, Oh Where could they be?

Cypress Health Region – Swift Current Care Centre

Do you or does someone you know have a family member who resides at Swift Current Care Centre?  

If so, you might want to know just how compromised the staffing levels have been since the forced shift changes.  In 2 short months (January & February) the care providers worked short on eighteen days…sometimes with one fewer SCA, other times with two fewer SCA’s and other times without adequate nursing coverage from either a LPN or RN or both.

You might wonder how they can continue to provide safe care. The sad reality is that there are more and more jobs being posted every week. Since March 1, there have been 45 postings go up.  The problem is that there are too few applicants.  As an example, only one application was received for the recent posting of three Full-Time SCA positions at Swift Current Care Centre.  1 out of 3.  These numbers are somewhat consistent with the number of days worked facing unsafe staffing levels.

So the government can protect the residents from unsafe staffing levels but ONLY when the care providers are at a bargaining table.  Great protection, right?

Perhaps we should look back to when the 12 hour shifts were cancelled.  Management told staff they could leave and go elsewhere to work if they did not like the new shift patterns.  It looks like they listened.  I sure hope that management has a plan on how they will provide care for the residents when they have no care providers. Don’t you?

It’s like day and night

Cypress Health Region - Palliser Regional Care Centre

Day shifts are more difficult, to be sure because the residents are awake and more demanding.

Workers are hesitant to accept day shifts because they know what they’re in for.

This affects LPNs, SCAs, and RNs.

It’s not unusual for the employer to go without a nurse on the night shift.

But what if there were an emergency?

Rural Sask Hospitals proudly announce the ‘patience first’ delivery of care model…

Cypress Health Region - Maple Creek Hospital

When a member of the general public goes to Maple Creek hospital for laboratory testing there is a good chance that they will get to wait for their results.  Every single patient should be asking: ‘where are my test results being done’?  Don’t be surprised when you learn that there is a delay associated with transporting the sample to another location. 

While the CEO has indicated that the surplus generated by this health region does not come from any vacancies that remain unfilled within the SEIU-West bargaining unit, this is simply not the case.  A part-time CLXT position was posted in September of 2010 – it was never filled and it has never been re-posted.  We would like to know why union members are being stone-walled in their pleas to have this position filled.  Over the last 6 months, there have been approximately 29 shifts where the staff have worked short.  This causes a further increase in the wait time to collect the sample…so now you get to wait twice.

Saskatchewan now offers two-tiered health care – urban Saskatchewan offers the ‘patient first’ model and in rural Saskatchewan you get the ‘patience first’ model.  What is your preference?

If you don’t like it why don’t you leave?

Cypress Health Region - Palliser Regional Care Centre

We are scared that the strong, efficient caring organization we have helped to build will fall apart, because of un-carefully dictated changes.

Scheduling calls have reached the point of outright harassment. They are calling people already working full-time hours in an attempt to get staffing levels mandated by our management for safety.

Can management not see that there is a major crisis just around the corner if they do not take full responsibility for this fiasco, admit that they were WRONG in changing the shifts and take positive steps to stop the hemorrhaging, if not, there will be no one here for them to manage. We will have all taken management’s advice and found work elsewhere.

 

Stretching the leash to the brink

Cypress Health Region - Palliser Regional Care Centre

 

We understand that our workplace is our resident’s home and we do our best to accommodate everyone’s needs.

We know the families are upset with increased wait times but when you reduce the number of workers from 9-10 at a time to 6-7 and you increase the amount of residents who need extra attention from 6 to 12 in one area something is going to give.

If staff had more input on how workloads are organized, we would be able to stem this issue.

If you leave, who will take care of me?

Cypress Health Region - Palliser Regional Care Centre

Mass exodus of Palliser staff from November to the end of January – 4 from 2^nd floor alone – there will be more leaving because of understaffing and stress. They were good staff.

Others are trying to job-share because they can’t handle the FT changes from 12 to 8 hours and then being scheduled 7 days a week.

“Retention and Recruitment is Ruff”

Cypress Health Region - Palliser Regional Care Centre

How many people want to work weekends/evenings/holidays all the time? On top of being very physical and mental work, how many people want to spend money on schooling to work like this every day?

Let there be 8 hour shifts!

Cypress Health Region - Palliser Regional Care Centre

Since the move from 12 hour shifts to 8 hours has been implemented:

• Management is scheduling people 7 days in a row. At least with 12 hours there would be days off. Could management work 7 days in a row doing the job that SCAs do? Doubtful.
• SCAs are complaining of more headaches, back aches, etc...
• Staff’s lack of home life. Some staff are saying they are having problems at home. Where’s that work/life balance.
• Overtime has skyrocketed since new rotations were implemented.

Managers and Directors should be confident in the depth of employees work experience and should listen to what employees are telling them 8 hour shifts are not working.