I am appalled at the proposal to close the hospital laundries, which IHA management sees as cost-saving.
Beyond those lost jobs and the salaries spent in the community, there is a greater issue here.
It boggles the mind that trucking contaminated linen away from the hospital is a sane solution.
Just ask the nursing staff about the many occasions when a frantic call had to be placed to the laundry to provide clean linen as there was an increased patient care need.
Ask the families of folks in residential care if they are prepared to write-off the personal items like dentures and sweaters that have accidentally ended up in the laundry, and now they are somewhere in Alberta.
Granted, there would be the savings of those HEU salaries but frankly, most people who saw the receiving end of those odious bags would agree that it is well-earned.
P. Findlay
Vernon
