Castanet

http://www.castanet.net/news/Vernon/870 ... s-unveiled

Love Castanet - photo's of people , no photo's of the actual plans.

60 beds , but only 14 new beds.

Increase number of beds from 140 to 162 , last time I looked , 186 beds were being held down by patients , some of which had a nice private curtain around their bed out in the hallway.

The Liberal-biased media has been trumpeting the "60" number as the number of new beds in the hospital. In reality 48 of the beds will be stripped out of the lower floors of the tower. Only 12 new beds will be added. Will there actually be nurses and other staff to go along with these beds, or have the definitions of beds changed again. The hospital usually runs with more than 160 odd beds occupied, some days in the 190's. This sounds like selling a lot of sizzle instead of steak because it's an election year.

Next up, a few dollars for the new playing fields at Okanagan College.

$30 mil for 14 beds! Only $2 mil per bed! Such a deal! Are the beds made out of solid platinum?

Spocky wrote:$30 mil for 14 beds! Only $2 mil per bed! Such a deal! Are the beds made out of solid platinum?

It is the cost of administrators. I wonder what the ratio of admins to beds is now?

The funding for this is also interesting. About $22 million will come from the Provincial government. The other $7 million will come from the "Regional Hospital District" which will come from local taxation.

And the 60 new beds on the the two floors aren't really 60 new beds. 46 of them already exist in the hospital and represent the beds parked in hallways and broom closets. The province will only fund an additional 12-14 beds. So the two floors will only get staff for 12-14 more beds.

The completed hospital will be funded to handle about 160 patients. There have been days when VJH has been around 190.

Ah yes, happy Liberal faces all around. Of course, the fact that the provincial election is only 14 weeks away is mere coincidence, right? Before we get caught up in the hoopla, let's not forget that these beds were already in desperate need 10 or more years ago. A net gain of only 12-14 beds won't cut it; by the time they're finally opened, the demand will have increased to the point where we'll likely still see patients in hallways and housekeeping closets.

The real need in this community is for more publicly-funded long-term care beds. It's been a fact of life for years at VJH that too many acute-care beds are occupied by people with long-term medical issues waiting for placement. Simply adding a few 'new' acute beds does little or nothing to solve that problem when you look at the exploding population of older folks in this town. My own 88-year-old mother spent almost a year in a hospital bed before finally being placed in an appropriate facility. Some people wait much longer or die before ever getting there, and that's just not acceptable.

Spocky wrote:$30 mil for 14 beds! Only $2 mil per bed! Such a deal! Are the beds made out of solid platinum?

A co-worker in purchasing told me that an ordinary hospital runs around $20,000 +, mattress not included, and that was a few years ago. It's made mostly of stamped steel and plastic. The only platinum you'll find is on an administator's wrist. Oh, and in his or her salary/pension.

Verminator wrote:Ah yes, happy Liberal faces all around. Of course, the fact that the provincial election is only 14 weeks away is mere coincidence, right? Before we get caught up in the hoopla, let's not forget that these beds were already in desperate need 10 or more years ago. A net gain of only 12-14 beds won't cut it; by the time they're finally opened, the demand will have increased to the point where we'll likely still see patients in hallways and housekeeping closets.

The real need in this community is for more publicly-funded long-term care beds. It's been a fact of life for years at VJH that too many acute-care beds are occupied by people with long-term medical issues waiting for placement. Simply adding a few 'new' acute beds does little or nothing to solve that problem when you look at the exploding population of older folks in this town. My own 88-year-old mother spent almost a year in a hospital bed before finally being placed in an appropriate facility. Some people wait much longer or die before ever getting there, and that's just not acceptable.

Is that with or without all the beds that we lost due to the BC Liberals excellent management skills?
Like I said else where they did a wonderful job fixing the Doctor and nurse shortage. Such a simple and elegant plan: shut down beds. Shortage fixed!

It's just outrageous. Money is being chewed up at an astounding rate and the BC citizen is getting precious little out of it. Instead of boasting about this, VGH admins should be apologizing!