Richard Rolke, Vernon Morning Star, May 11, 2011 The City of Vernon will throw its full weight behind efforts to ease hospital congestion. Council voted unanimously Monday to support the Purple Ribbon campaign that has been launched by physicians and nurses to pressure the government for more acute care beds at Vernon Jubilee Hospital. “We need beds in there now,” said Mayor Wayne Lippert. The city will join forces with campaign organizers to consider options to promote the community’s needs, and it will also lobby the government and the Interior Health Authority directly. ... Council

CHBC News, May 11, 2011 Vernon City Council is throwing its support behind a campaign calling for more beds at the local hospital. Vernon nurses have been vocal in their demands for the government to fund more acute care beds at Vernon Jubilee Hospital, with appropriate nursing resources and operating funds to match. Their purple ribbon campaign was launched in response to chronic and severe overcrowding at the facility. After nurses made a presentation at a Vernon City Council meeting, councilors voted unanimously to endorse the nurses’ campaign and lobby the province for an increase in beds at VJH. ... Vernon

Sarah Douziech, The Province, May 10, 2011 BC nurses added their voices to the call to keep a safe drug-injection site in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside open, as part of a federal-court case being heard Thursday. At issue before the Supreme Court of Canada is whether federal drug laws or provincial health interests have power over Insite, and whether shutting it down violates the human rights of drug users. This week, the BC Nurses Union, alongside 13 other supporters including the BC government, will head to Ottawa to argue health care should trump drug laws when it comes to Insite. ... As

Debra McPherson, President, BC Nurses' Union, Vancouver Sun, April 29, 2011 For nurses it's refreshing that support for public healthcare has emerged as a key issue in this federal election campaign. Canadians have continuously declared that healthcare is their number one concern. But most of our political leaders - including the Prime Minister - launched their campaigns seemingly intent on putting medicare on the backburner. Just before the election was called, the government tried to bury discussion of the expiring federal/provincial health funding accord by referring it to the Senate, where the Conservatives have appointed a majority of members ... Nurses

250 News, November 9, 2010 Prince George - The President of the BC Nurses Union says the members  are extremely disappointed with the results of the meeting held  with senior Northern Health Authority officials regarding critical care patient safety at University Hospital of Northern BC. “The meeting showed the health authority still doesn’t get it”, says Debra McPherson, president of the BC Nurses’ Union. “They just don’t understand that front line healthcare providers must be able to participate in planning changes that affect their practice.” While the health authority shared some long term plans for expanding capacity in intensive care and surgical step down units ... Prince

Jennifer Saltman, The Province, September 29, 2010 A plan to increase the amount of “direct care” given to patients in long-term care has some nurses fearing more seniors will die and become ill in Fraser Valley nursing homes. About 100 long-term care nurses met in Surrey Wednesday to discuss the elimination of 68 registered-nurse positions in Fraser Health owned and operated facilities. The number of RNs who will be laid off from contracted facilities is unknown. Renee Kennedy, a nurse at Peace Arch Hospital, said that since January 10 RNs have been laid off there. “It’s overwhelming,” Kennedy said. ... Nurse

According to the BC Nurses Union. Jeremy Bosch, News1130, September 29, 2010 Vancouver - The BC Nurses Union is raising the alarm after eighty more nurses have been handed their pink slips in the Fraser Health Authority. Registered Nurses at long-term healthcare facilities in the Lower Mainland say they've seen a big drop in the quality of patient care. In January, ten registered nurses were let go from Surrey's Peace Arch Hospital. Since the move, Nurse Renee Kennedy says patients have suffered. ... Nursing

Marcel Tetrault, Comox Valley Echo, August 13, 2010 The hospital boss says nurses and doctors are coming on side with a plan to create a new 22-bed transitional care unit at Saint Joseph's Hospital in Comox. The plan, when it was initially made public in April, caused a huge hue and cry in the community when it was revealed that 35 registered nurses (RN) would be laid off. That was just the worst-case scenario, said hospital CEO Michael Pontus, and it didn't come to pass. "We had to give (the union) an estimate of a worst-case scenario, which we did," he said. "They got it put into the paper as a large number of people being displaced." ... No

The plan opens the door to more uncertainty and dislocation, when nurses are already stretched to the limit and health authorities are cutting services and staff to balance their budgets. British Columbia Nurses’ Union, April 12, 2010 Nurses have serious concerns with the so-called "patient focused funding" plan unveiled today by the provincial government. The plan would replace already inadequate hospital funding that's forcing health authorities to close operating rooms, reduce beds and cut nurses, with a dubious scheme to pay hospitals based on the number of patients served and how quickly they can be sent home. ... Nurses

VIHA cuts to psychiatric services puts vulnerable patients, staff and community at risk. British Columbia Nurses’ Union, April 8, 2010 Vancouver - Reid Johnson, President of the Health Sciences Association, and Debra McPherson, President of the BC Nurses' Union, are calling on WorkSafe BC to immediately order VIHA to protect staff at Eric Martin Pavilion, the mental health facility at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria. The demand for action follows a series of violent assaults on staff by a patient with severe mental illness. VIHA's cuts to psychiatric services and their inaction on improving hospital safety leave patients, staff and the wider community vulnerable to violence. ... WorkSafe

Wear a sticker and attend an event in your community. British Columbia Nurses’ Union, April 7, 2010 Every year on April 28th, we honour the memory of Canadian workers who have lost their lives or careers due to work-related injuries or occupational diseases. The Day of Mourning is an opportunity to remember fallen workers and to recommit to creating safer workplaces. Facts on 2009 work-related injuries and deaths ... BCNU

They want a transparent, independent evaluation of this experiment. British Columbia Nurses’ Union, April 6, 2010 Nurses are concerned today's provincial budget does nothing to reverse the destructive cuts to patient services imposed on health authorities by the last The BC Nurses' Union is joining the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions in questioning a decision to allow Canadian Blood Services to conduct a pilot project to replace nurses with low-skilled workers for initial blood donor screening. The decision was communicated to Canadian Blood Services by officials of federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq last Thursday (April 1), just before the start of the long weekend. ... Safe

Ill-conceived, short-sighted, harmful to seniors, to vulnerable members of the public and to the nurses who provide their care. British Columbia Nurses Union, October 22, 2009 Nurses today condemned healthcare cuts announced by Vancouver Island Health Authority as ill-conceived, shortsighted and harmful to seniors, to vulnerable members of the public and to the nurses who provide their care. "VIHA should be ashamed of itself for these cuts that reduce or eliminate services for seniors, the mentally ill, and for those needing elective surgery and diagnostic procedures," said Debra McPherson, president of the BC Nurses' Union. ... Nurses

Rejecting the right of nurses to belong to the union of their choice, the moves require BCNU activists to withdraw from official participation in BC Fed, CLC and labour council activities. BC Nurses’ Union, August 6, 2009 Following the disappointing order by the Canadian Labour Congress suspending BCNU from labour councils and CLC activities, the BC Federation of Labour has suspended BCNU from its activities as well. In taking these actions, the CLC and BC Fed are saying they'd rather ban BCNU members from joint labour activities, rather than defend the rights of workers, including nurses, to choose their own representatives and union affiliation. ... BC

A nurse's right to belong to the union of their choice is fundamental. BC Nurses' Union, July 31, 2009 The BC Nurses' Union is disappointed that the Canadian Labour Congress has chosen to try and ban BCNU members from joint labour activities, rather than defend the rights of workers, including nurses, to choose their own representatives. "BCNU believes that the values and professional needs of nurses naturally bring us together in the pursuit of quality care environments. Many Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) have come to us and said that they feel that uniting the family of BC's nurses under one umbrella ..." BC