It started with administration's decision in October to merge the surgery and pediatrics wards to help reduce the hospital's looming deficit. But after staff protested, the decision was scrapped. By November the hospital's nursing shortage had gone from bad to worse and administrators couldn't reopen the surgical ward. Not for a lack of will, they say, but for a lack of nurses. Four months later, the ward is potentially weeks away from reopeing, or is it?
Kirsten Murphy
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Mar 09/01) - One of the longest ward closures in Stanton Regional Hospital's history continues.
Four of the six full time nurses needed to reopen the 14-bed unit, closed since June, have been hired, said Dennis Cleaver, hospital chief executive officer.
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"It's been an awakening. A national nurses shortage made it harder to recruit than we thought."
Cleaver is hoping for a mid-April reopening date.
So are the constituents who met with MLA Brendan Bell this week. Surgical patients have been placed on wards throughout the hospital, mostly on the pediatric floor, since the closure.
Bell wouldn't confirm or deny if surgical nurses attended the meeting. He said the people he met with raised concerns about older patients dissatisfied with their hospital stay.
"Cases where people were trying to sleep and kids were running around, talking and it was disturbing. You know, kids being kids." Bell said.
If health and hygiene (access to showers, bath) were a concern, Bell was unaware.
"They were making the case for a separate surgery ward," Bell said. "But people don't want to see unsafe work conditions because of under staffing. They're saying let's make sure we do this right."
Money saved
In the nine months the ward has been closed, the hospital has saved an estimated $250,000, money that will go toward reducing the $1.6-million deficit.
While Cleaver said it was never the hospital's intention to keep the ward closed, a proposed merging of the surgery and pediatric wards in October 2000 was reversed after a public outcry.
But administrators still insist they have done all tat can be done to reopen the ward.
"I don't know what more we could do," said Joan Andrews, director of patient care services. "We're competing with the rest of Canada (for nurses)."
Recruitment ads ran in 16 Canadian newspapers, including National Post, Montreal Gazette and Vancouver Sun. Additional ads were placed in two health magazines and on one local cable television station. More than 100 resumes were received.
"A number of the people (who applied) received job offers from other health boards in Canada and the United States," Cleaver said.
"People were accepting other positions for family reasons, economic reasons, relocation reasons."
In all, Stanton needed 10 nurses when they started their hiring drive in November: 6 nurses to reopen the surgical ward; four nurses for other wards throughout the hospital; several casual nurses.
Casual nurses fill positions for nurses who are sick, on holiday or during peak work times.
The recruitment ads running in Yellowknifer noted the need for both full-time and casual positions.
Reopening the ward also hinges on stable staffing (no mass retirements, terminations, or resignations) and the arrival of new recruits.
Cleaver is cautiously optimistic.
"It's fair to say the doctors, nurses and administrators are working well together. We want the surgery ward open and hopefully it won't be too long," he said.
Whether or not the surgical ward shuts down this summer, as it routinely does, has not been decided, Cleaver said.
