The president of the B.C. Nurses Union is blasting the administration of the Interior Health Authority for its running of Kelowna General Hospital, particularly cuts it is making to balance its budget and the effect those cuts are having on nurses who work there.

Debra McPherson, in Kelowna to talk with nurses at KGH, said the approach IH is taking is “social policy by the bottom line.”

“Basically, if it’s cheap, it’s doable and if it costs money, it won’t be done,” she said.

She said the impact of the health authority’s decision to reduce overtime is burning out nurses because they are expected to do more to cover for other nurses who are off sick.

And that is having a direct impact on patient care, she added.

“At Kelowna General Hospital, nurses are routinely made to work in wards operating beyond the patient capacity that they are supposed to handle,” said the BCNU president.

And she claimed there have been as many as 23 patients in the hall of the hospital because the wards that are open are routinely full. She described the emergency department of KGH on Thursday afternoon as “a zoo.”

Nurses, she said, are feeling burned out and not respected by their employer.

“The health authority cannot continue to drive nurses to give more than 100 per cent.”

McPherson said the current working conditions would not be tolerated if her union’s members were currently in a strike position and essential service levels were in place.

But Mary Jane Cullen, health services administrator for community and acute care in the Central Okanagan, said while overtime has been an issue for nurses in the past, the health authority has reduced overtime by 31 per cent this year alone.

Earlier this year, IH CEO Murray Ramsden said one of the strategies to be used to battle a mounting budget deficit in the health authority would curtail overtime as much as possible.

But the BCNU says the way that is being done, in part, is by ignoring initial sick calls by nurses and having the staff who are on shift, cover the work of the absent nurse.

Cullen denied first sick calls, as they are known, are being ignored.

But she said the IH, in monitoring sick time, does look to see if the shift in question needs to be filled.

“Change can be difficult but if nurses have issues, there are managers on each unit (to whom the issues can be address) and we want to hear from (nurses),” said Cullen.

The union is also highly critical of the way Interior Health is making its cuts, accusing the authority of doing it by “stealth.”

“It’s not being done transparently here,” said McPherson, pointing to Vancouver Island and Vancouver as examples of how cuts are publicly announced.

“There the public can see the totality of the cuts,” she said.

Here, she said, they are done below the radar and one day the public will find that health care here has deteriorated to a level that is not acceptable.

For its part, Interior Health maintains that patient care is paramount and moves have been made to strengthen that.

While the BCNU is critical of a new checklist nurses must fill out when handing a medically unstable patient to a porter for transportation in the hospital, Cullen said the change was made to make sure the patient has proper medical assistance during the transportation. McPherson characterized the change as insufficient training for porters.

The current H1N1 flu pandemic is another cause of concern for the union. McPherson said nurses are not even in the top priority for getting H1N1 vaccine shots.

But Cullen said that is not true, nurses will be one of the first to get the vaccine, along with other top priority groups, such as women in their second half of pregnancy and young children.

The union says it is raising concerns about the Interior Health Authority’s operation because it wants the public to get involved.

While also blasting the province for not adequately funding the health authority, McPherson took a verbal swipe at Penticton MLA Bill Barisoff, who she called “eternally complacent” when it comes to fighting for health care in the South Okanagan.

She did not mention any of the Central Okanagan MLAs.

The BCNU also wants the federal government to provide more money for dealing with the H1N1 flu vaccine distribution, because it is a response to a national pandemic.

awaters@kelownacapnews.com