BC Nurses Union calling on the province, Northern Health to increase support for frontline workers
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(Files by Brendan Pawliw-MyPGNow)
BC Nurses Union President Christine Sorensen stated Intensive Care nurses at Prince George’s University Hospital are cracking under the pandemic pressure.
Sorensen told Vista Radio the region is already struggling with fewer nurses per capita than all of Canada.
“And then on top of that, Northern Health has 25% fewer nurses than the rest of BC. You have significant issues in your rural and remote communities and then patients who are requiring more complex care related to the pandemic or complex surgeries have to go to UHNBC.”
(ROB MUNRO / iNFOnews.ca) January 28, 2021 - 9:00 AM One Kelowna nurse regularly arrives an hour early for her 12-hour shift to begin her search for a parking spot while Kamloops nurses have approached that city trying to get access to city parking lots to make their commute to work shorter and safer. Another nurse told her union rep about having “scary people” yelling at her or following her as she walked city streets late at night to get to her car. “I was walking to my car after 11 p.m. and I had a guy come up to me and put his arms around me and ask me where I was going,” another Kelowna nurse wrote to B.C. Nurses Union President Christine Sorensen. “I had to elbow him and tell him to get away from me.”
Virtual Town Hall set for Tonight
SHARE ON: Cowichan-Malahat-Langford MP Alistair MacGregor in Parliament. Supplied by Alistair MacGregor.
Fresh off his nomination to run again in the next federal election, Cowichan-Malahat-Langford MP Alistair MacGregor is hosting a virtual town hall tonight (Thursday) on the Zoom platform.
MP Peter Julian and BC Nurses Union President Christine Sorenson will join MacGregor to discuss Bill C-213, Canada’s Pharmacare Act.
MacGregor said Canada has the dubious distinction as the only country in the world that doesn’t include medication in its universal health care system.
“To have pharmaceuticals excluded from that for all this time really is a head-scratcher,” said MacGregor. “We think it’s high-time to address this glaring hole. Canadians spend billions of dollars each year on their prescriptions and, for some people, it leads to very difficult decisions.”
Staff shortages and sense of duty discouraging health-care workers from staying home when sick, unions say
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says there is “a culture of presenteeism in health care,” but unions say workers are worried about staff shortages and inconsistent paid sick leave.
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Over 12,000 health care workers have signed the ‘Stop Gouging Health Care Workers’ petition created by Christina Gower, a Registered Psychiatric nurse.
The petition is fighting to decrease the cost of fees required for Licensed Practical Nurses (LPN), Registered Nurses (RN), Registered Psychiatric Nurses and Nurse Practitioners in BC to continue working.
The yearly cost of fees for a nurse in BC depends on their classification, however, according to Gower the near 9,000 LPN’s in BC are hit the hardest by the fees.
“It costs around $2,600 for me to work a year,” she explained, “my Union dues are about $1,800 a year, I’m paying the college $515 a year, then $164 to join the association and get insured.”