Feature Article April 24, 2003
LAND O' LAKES NewsWeb Home Rural nursing serviceby Jeff GreenSo far homecare has not been dramatically affected in the rural Frontenac regions since an almost-bankrupt VON was forced to cancel its service contract with the Community Care Access Centre (CCAC) on April 9.
Anne Floegel of the CCAC office in Northbrook reports that patients who had earlier been visited at home by the VON, and then had their care suspended for a short time because of a return to the hospital or another reason, are now having care restored by the VON
This is a change from last week, when it seemed that the VON would not be reinstating patients whose service had been suspended. The CCAC describes the situation as fluid, as VON restructuring takes place.
Still, no new referrals are being taken on by the VON, and the CCAC office in Northbrook reports that Paramed and All-Care, the other service providers under contract to the CCAC, have been taking on whatever new referrals have come in since the VON stopped taking on new patients on April 9.
The situation is muddied up by the SARS situation, which has led many to avoid hospitals, and the health care system as a whole, over that time period.
A petition to save the VON is being circulated by CUPE, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the VON nurses union. It implores the Minister Health and Long Term Care to recommend to the Ontario Government that necessary funds be provided to the Community Care Access Centre to ensure that the VON are able to maintain their community nursing programs.
All-Care and Paramed, the two for-profit nursing care providers serving the region, dont have offices or large numbers of nurses based in rural Frontenac County, and this may make it difficult for them to maintain the level of care offered by the VON offices in Sharbot Lake and Northbrook.
There is an efficiency in having nurses based in the community, who are able to make follow-up visits on their way home, and able to provide the repeat visits required by palliative care clients. Whoever offers the service will not likely be able to do a complete job without a base in the communities, said Dr. Peter Bell from the Sharbot Lake Medical Centre.
VON nurse Cathy Fox says there has been no further information from the VON office in Kingston as to when patients will be transferred to other agencies. Its been really quiet, she said, almost as if something is going to happen soon.
All-Care and Paramed both have run large ads in the Whig Standard recruiting nurses. The VON has a caseload of around 1,000 patients in Kingston and the rural area, so the two remaining providers will need a considerable number of new staff.
To my knowledge, neither Paramed nor All-Care have approached any of the nurses in the Sharbot Lake or Northbrook offices directly Cathy Fox reports.
When contacted on Tuesday, Carolyn Manley, the VON-Eastern Lake Ontario Branch Executive Director, would not comment on what the current timelines for withdrawal of VON service in the rural areas are, saying she needed to review earlier coverage of the matter before commenting. The News hopes to get some clarification for next weeks issue.
