BY HEIDI ULRICHSEN
Instead of implementing real solutions to the city’s health-care crisis, the board and administration of Sudbury Regional Hospital are putting “a Band-Aid on top of a Band-Aid on top of a Band-Aid,” says the president of the Ontario Nurses Association Local 013.
“There’s nothing concrete that we see and I guess that’s frustrating on the part of the nurses,” says Ann Kennealy.
“We don’t see any end in sight and we don’t feel that even when we move into the one-site (hospital) any of the problems are going to be solved.”
She is speaking out about her concerns after recent statements in the media by Minister of Health and Long-Term Care George Smitherman and family doctor Dr. Miguel Bonin. They criticized the way the hospital is run.
Smitherman said he was tired of giving more and more money to the hospital while the facility continued to be in crisis.
Kennealy believes Smitherman “certainly isn’t reflecting on the care that’s being given at the hospital. He’s reflecting on the management of the hospital.”
Bonin spoke out about the hospital’s old equipment, overcrowded facilities and behind-schedule one-site hospital project.
“The buildings are crumbling because we shouldn’t be in those buildings now. We should be on one site,” she says.
“You’re patching up constantly. We’ve gotten lots of new equipment, but there’s some things that weren’t going to be purchased until we’re on one site. Now things are starting to fall apart and they’re having to purchase new equipment and move people around so they can install this stuff.
“It makes it difficult. They moved our cafeteria at St. Joseph’s Health Centre so they could install new equipment, and so now we don’t even have a proper cafeteria to eat in...It makes you feel like you’re not respected or valued.”
She says the hospital’s leadership should be pushing harder for more long-term care beds to be opened in Greater Sudbury. Many patients waiting for long-term care are staying in the hospital right now, and they are putting a strain on the system.
The government did announce 96 more long-term care beds will open in the city in 2010 or 2011, but that’s not soon enough, says Kennealy.
The woman, who works in the recovery room at the St. Joseph’s Health Centre site, says some patients are forced to stay overnight in her department because they can’t get a regular hospital bed.
“That means that nurses who should be at home sleeping are at work,” she says.
“We do have nurses who are on call for the OR and the recovery room. But that was supposed to be for emergencies. What is happening now is I have nurses that are working for 16 hours without any rest period. They’re exhausted.”
She says there is a shortage of nurses at the hospital, and administration is making up for it by hiring less-educated personal support workers instead.
“The nurses are crying for help, and we are saying to the hospital we don’t feel that unregulated health-care workers are the solution,” says Kennealy.
Kennealy is also concerned that the one-site hospital won’t be big enough for all the patients needing care, given the ongoing long-term care bed shortage.
Perhaps administration for the one-site hospital should be located offsite and the entire space filled with patients, says Kennealy.
The hospital’s vice-president of clinical programs and chief nursing officer, David McNeil, says he understands what nurses at the hospital are going through. He is a nurse himself.
However, he says he doesn’t think nurses are overworked. They do work hard, he says, but that’s typical of the nursing profession.
The hospital is forced to keep the recovery room open about four times a month because patients waiting for long-term care are taking up hospital beds, he says.
“The nurses in the recovery room are on call, and that means doing more evening shifts. It’s not structured to be open on a continuous basis, so it becomes tiring for them because they have to put in more shifts.”
He admits the hospital has about 60 nurse positions it can’t fill, but says that’s actually low compared to the rest of the province.
“We are in the process of aggressively recruiting nurses. We do that on an ongoing basis.”
The number of nurses at the hospital has increased from 950 in 1998 to 1,139 today, says McNeil.
Personal support workers have been introduced in one unit in the hospital, he says.
“They work alongside nurses. We haven’t changed our complement of nurses in that unit. We supplemented the nursing complement with personal support workers,” he says.
“If we can’t get the supply of nurses, we have to be prepared for the future...We have to look at other models of care. We’re beginning that discussion within our organization and looking at where else we might have to modify our care team to better meet the needs of the community.”
Hospital administration has been working hard over the past three years to make the health ministry aware of how the long-term care shortage is affecting hospital care, he says.
McNeil says the one-site hospital won’t have enough beds if a solution to the long-term bed shortage isn’t found soon.
McNeil agrees staff are facing “challenges” because they are working in older buildings that were supposed to be phased out years ago. Older equipment is also a problem, but the hospital is purchasing new equipment every year, he says.
“We will have a significant investment in new technology in the new building, so I think people will see a very different face to Sudbury Regional Hospital in terms of its infrastructure.”
The North East Local Health Integration network, which provides funding for health care agencies in this region, announced $711,400 Friday to alleviate the bed shortage in Greater Sudbury.
The city will receive $342,400 for home care and community support services and about $215,000 to open 10 more interim long-term care beds.
Another $154,300 will go towards hiring a community care access centre case manager who will work at the hospital emergency department assessing and diverting clients to more appropriate community services.
