Stanton lobby policy raises concerns
UNW official says some members worried about health and safety
Kirsten Fenn
Northern News Services
Friday, January 13, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The second vice-president of the Union of Northern Workers says a new policy at Stanton Territorial hospital of allowing homeless individuals to stay overnight in its lobby is a security concern for the union and some of its members who work there.
The Union of Northern Workers' second vice-president, Marie Buchanan, says opening the hospital's lobby to homeless individuals is not the best approach to dealing with the social issue, and that several union members have to come to her with concerns. - Kirsten Fenn/NNSL photo |
"Staff priority is to their clients and their family," the UNW's Marie Buchanan said. "I think there's a responsibility for the GNWT to make sure we deal with this problem elsewhere. It shouldn't be up to the hospital to take over that role."
On Nov. 3, Stanton's chief operating officer Colin Goodfellow sent an e-mail to staff stating the hospital would open its registration area to individuals who are not in need of medical attention but are in search of a warm place to stay after the city's homeless shelters have filled up or closed for the night.
They are welcome to food and water but must not engage in fighting, begging, bothering visitors or patients, and must not be intoxicated, the letter states. It adds individuals in the lobby will be monitored by Twilight Security.
Buchanan said security guards can't always monitor the lobby as they have to tend to other areas of the hospital.
As the UNW vice-president in charge of occupational health and safety, she said several members have shared with her that they are worried about staff and patient security. She added there has to be due diligence to ensure patient and staff belongings are safe, for example.
"Security has to make rounds, so quite a few times every hour there is no security after the registration clerk leaves at midnight," Buchanan said. "There's no registration clerk at the front, there's no security, there's just the people sleeping there."
Goodfellow told Yellowknifer this week that the hospital meets regularly with the union and that security is an ongoing issue, whether related to individuals in the lobby or not.
"We've instituted a security review specific to the lobby that includes the local union president," Goodfellow said. "The behaviours allowed (in the lobby) are really clear and security needs to continue to pay close attention to that."
He added security staff have been doing their job well and neither he nor the union have received any formal complaints around the hospital's new policy.
"Staff are aware that any observed behavior that is not (appropriate) just go straight to security," he said. "For a good number of staff, 'doing the right thing' by the homeless when it's cold feels right."
UNW Local 11 president Frank Walsh, who represents 521 union members at Stanton, such as nurses, registration staff, members of the emergency department and x-ray staff, said he has heard second-hand of some concerns, but that members have not come directly to him to talk about it.
He said it is a bit of a "rocky road" trying to make the policy work and that staff were not really given a heads-up before it was rolled out.
"I think we all recognize this is a very cold place," Walsh said. "None of these people grew up as kids saying, 'I want to live on the streets of Yellowknife.'"
Walsh said he believes staff should help the best they can, but added it's important to maintain rules and ensure staff and patients feel comfortable when people are welcomed into the hospital lobby.
Buchanan said it is a difficult issue, but questioned whether the hospital is the right place to deal with it.
"To be sitting in a foyer of a population of vulnerable people that are sick, are being admitted to the hospital - is it a place for them to mix?" she said. "If you've got somebody coming to be admitted with pneumonia, do you need to be sitting beside somebody who smokes and is sitting beside you while you're waiting for your registration? I don't think you're helping the homeless and I don't think you're helping the hospital," she said.
- with files from John McFadden
