I’d be interested to see what Vernon Jubilee Hospital’s statistics are. VJH has now installed
permanent ceiling tracks in the central hallway of 2W/2E.
There have been patients in those “office” hallways for years. The public needs to know this.
There are always letters in the paper about the good care people are getting, and I’m thankful for that, but I don’t think Joe Public really knows how bad morale is at the hospital.
How nurses are being called on almost every one of their days off to work overtime.
How physiotherapists at VJH are being asked to forego their right to overtime rates of pay when they work one of their two days off to help cover.. Yes, this is going on right here in Vernon. Management is taking advantage of the good will of its workers.
As one physiotherapist said to me, she knows it isn’t right and she is getting tired from doing the extra work but she knows if she doesn’t go in, then her colleagues are overloaded with work and patients suffer.
Health care is as good as it is because it is riding on the backs of the amazing health care workers. When is the government going to stop spending money badly and put it where it’s needed?
Yes, Vernon does need more longterm care beds, but we’ve needed them for 20 years.
Where has been the long-term planning? There have been ineffective people in positions of decision making for too many years.
For years, we in the field have seen management changes happen too frequently in Vernon.
VJH is talked about as a stepping stone for those looking for the elite positions elsewhere. Every time a new administrator comes in, previous plans are scrapped and the whole process happens all over again, leading to many bad decisions. We are very thankful for the new hospital, but the public needs to be reminded that there actually are going to be fewer beds at VJH when
it opens.
Every day there is a code purple declared at VJH. Staff just laugh when the announcement comes over the fax machine. “So what else is new?”
It is proven through studies that most pressure sores/ulcers start in ER. And guess where a lot of people start their hospital stay at VJH — in ER or the overflow on stretchers.
Yes they’ve been buying newer ones with better mattresses but it is still difficult to properly turn or care for patients lying on them. And patients are there for days now, not hours like it was 10 or more years ago. This truly has been going on for years.
We need those two new floors finished in the new tower. However, I’m not sure where the nursing staff are going to come from. That’s another dilemma.
Judy Douglas
