Oh where oh where have my tax dollars gone?

Cypress Health Region - Palliser Regional Care Centre

Beth Vachon in an article that ran in the Prairie Post on January 14, 2011 indicated that they have not laid off any SEIU-West staff in the last year and have honoured all appointments for SEIU Staff. She also stated that surpluses go to the capital fund as it would be irresponsible for the region to create staff positions with a temporary influx of funds.

Capital to build private hospitals? Where is the commitment to publicly funded owned and administered care?

What about the bed pan flusher we need? Can you fit that in with the temporary influx of money?

"No Barking Zone"

Cypress Health Region - multiple facilities

Since the launch of our Watchdog blog, management has now cut off all access to our Union Website for our members employed in the Cypress Health Region.  

If it looks like censorship and feels like censorship, perhaps it is.

This means no access to their new collective agreement and Joint Job Evaluation information. It also means that they no longer have interactive ability - to ask questions of their union.

What's next, wire taps?  

It sure makes you wonder what they have to hide.

Part-time solutions to a FULL-Time problem

Cypress Health Region - Palliser Regional Care Centre

In their wisdom, and much to the staff’s disappointment, the Cypress Health Region has decided to post jobs to help fill the need for staff.

Sounds good right?

Not really.

They are posting for part-time positions when there is a full time need.

Below are images of the postings that went up recently for various jobs.

Here’s a quick summary:

Part-Time:

SCA (3)

Office Admin Assistant (1)

Food Service Worker (1)

Unit Assistant (1)

Home Care Aide (2)

Full-Time:

Office Administrative Assistant (1)

Temporary Part-time:

Health Records clerk (2)

Office Administrative Assistant (1)

Staff Scheduler (1)

Home Care Aide (3)

Temporary Full-time:

Special Care Aide (1)

Notice anything? The majority of the temporary positions are in the actual DELIVERY of care.

Time for the Region to step up and fill these jobs permanently.

What a difference 20 years makes (140 in dog years)

Cypress Health Region - Palliser Regional Care Centre

Health care has changed drastically. Residents entering the care facilities, now have high needs. As opposed to 20 years ago when a lot of residents could walk and help with their care. If you are mobile and able to care for yourself, now you get to stay in your home. This is better for the person than institutional care. But why are we working with less staff than we had 20 years ago?

So in the past we had lower need residents and more staff. Today we have higher needs residents and less staff.

This just doesn’t make sense.

Here boy! Over here!

Cypress Health Region - Palliser Regional Care Centre

How much hands-on do the managers/management do with our residents? Are you comfortable that they should be able to make decisions on behalf of our residents? As care providers we aren’t. When was the last time they did hands-on care?

Not listening to staff is a form of disrespect. We are the front line and we know our jobs.

Our managers don’t walk the halls, they don’t know what we go through and they don’t know our residents. So when we tell them things and they say, “Oh, well everyone tells me that” and they don’t take action, this should be cause for concern. A good example of this is when we told our managers that we could not work 7 shifts in a row. They did not listen and now they are filling vacancies.

Is Your Health Care Going to the Dogs?

Cypress Health Region

I often wonder if the left hand has any idea what the right hand is doing when it comes to Cypress Health Region. Does the general public connect the inconsistencies in their messages? I hope so, because their quick, glossy answers are not fooling any of us service providers. On September 17, 2010 Cypress Region committed to increased nursing staff hours as a result of the change to 8 hour shift rotations. Yet when you see the real staffing levels in the long term care facilities on the blog – the total nursing hours do not even come close to those set out by the Health Region as necessary to perform essential services. Scroll lower and you will find they are not even meeting regular staffing levels. What’s that? When we did our rally objecting to their surplus (on our backs) they stated that there were no shortages in the SEIU-West units. Now they are closing services in Shaunavon over the upcoming weekend due to an absence of Lab/X-ray staff. They also stated in the Prairie Post some time ago that they had received more Registered Nurses than initially allotted. Yet they cannot get a RN to work in Shaunavon which is contributing to the closure of service. They don’t have any shortages, right? Don’t believe them!

Who is in the doghouse now?

Cypress Health Region - Palliser Regional Care Centre

We all know that you can’t have care without care providers. However, it is not only the care providers that put the management of Cypress Health Region in the doghouse.  It is the residents too!  See the letter to the editor that our Palliser Regional Care Centre resident, Sonja Fortney, recently submitted to the South-West booster. 

She lives on 3^rd floor and she is tired of the unsafe staffing levels and the lack of resources caused by management’s poor decision-making and government funding cuts.

South West Booster On-line: Free medical care implemented in 1944 should be sustainable now