Slippery slope

Fewer people are requiring hospitalization here of late. Good news, right?
Well, not so fast. Riverside Health Care Facilities, Inc. is using this “low patient census” at La Verendrye Hospital to justify moving the continuing care and pediatrics units down one floor and amalgamating them with St. Andrew’s Ward, where the acute care beds are located.
It’s meant to be a temporary measure, running for 13 weeks starting Oct. 12, although it could be extended if the number of patients continues to remain low.
By the same token, Riverside president and CEO Wayne Woods has stressed there’s also a contingency plan in place to convert back to two floors within 12 hours should there be a sudden influx of patients, say, due to an outbreak of the H1N1 ’flu locally—a very real possibility given all the dire warnings of a second surge of the virus this fall.
The decision, however, no matter how temporary, has resulted in staff layoffs, which is the last thing our community needs to hear in the wake of last week’s announcement by AbitibiBowater that its #6 paper machine here is being idled indefinitely, affecting some 75 workers in all.
Not only does that impact the local economy in the short term, but will these nurses still be here when (or if) the hospital needs them again down the road?
The other problem, of course, is that “temporary” measures can be a slippery slope. It starts with a 13-week amalgamation, but perhaps the next one is 20 weeks long, and then 25. Next thing you know, we no longer have a continuing care unit at the hospital.
We all realize the budget crunch hospitals are facing these days, but we also demand that all avenues of cost-cutting be explored before our front-line health care is impacted.
District residents must remain vigilant to ensure we don’t slide farther down that slope.