Nurses Demand Release of Analysis of New Care-model Impacts on Patients

August 28, 2013

VIHA's refusal to disclose evidence triggers FOI request targeting evaluations of impacts on patient safety and health outcomes

The BC Nurses' Union filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) Request today with the Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA). Nurses are seeking the release of all reports and studies evaluating impacts of its Care Delivery Model Redesign (CDMR) on patient health outcomes and the safety of patient care.

"We are deeply concerned that VIHA's redesign of care delivery is about cutting costs, not improving patient care," says BCNU President Debra McPherson. "We've invited VIHA repeatedly to share any studies it has demonstrating that replacing nurses with care aides will not negatively impact patient safety."

"So far VIHA has stonewalled all requests to release studies and data, so we want to know whether they're hiding something or have failed to evaluate whether these changes pose a risk to patients," says McPherson. "When nurses and the public are kept in the dark about patient safety impacts that sets our alarm bells off."

Nurses at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital have held demonstrations to protest CDMR, which is scheduled for start-up on September 13th. Vancouver Island nurses also delivered three thousand signed petitions from members of the public concerned about CDMR to VIHA's August board meeting in Duncan.

The petitions call on VIHA to halt implementation of CDMR, agree to an independent, expert review of the care model, and release all studies and data evaluating impacts on patient care. VIHA has declined the requests.

"I'm not aware of any peer-reviewed study showing that VIHA's new model of care is best suited to the needs of an aging patient population with increasingly complex illnesses," says McPherson. "What we do know is that more - not less - bedside nursing is directly associated with better outcomes and safer patient care."

VIHA announced it would replace nurses with care aides on key units at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital in May 2013. In August, VIHA gave notice that 11 units at Victoria General Hospital and 12 at Royal Jubilee Hospital are being targeted for CDMR, with start-up scheduled for January 2014. Twenty-six nursing positions are being replaced by care aides at NRGH, but to date no numbers have been released for VGH and RJH.

ATTACHED to this News Release is a letter to Ms. Lori Bird.

For more information, contact:
Debra McPherson, BCNU President 604-209-4253
Catherine Pope, Communications Officer 604-313-7412
David Cubberley, Campaigns Officer 604-992-9226