Feature Article May 22,2003
LAND O' LAKES NewsWeb HomeStill More QuestionsBy Jeff Green
The proceedings of a quarterly inter-agency meeting of community service agencies in Sharbot Lake were livened up considerably when the invited guest speaker, Allen Prowse, opened the floor up for questions.
Prowse had given a presentation on the activities of the Community Care Access Centre (CCAC), of which he has been the Executive Director since February, but the audience of health care professionals and concerned citizens wanted to know about the immediate prospects for the home nursing services in the surrounding region.
Until April 9, the VON accepted the bulk of the home nursing in a wide area, from Godfrey in the south to Denbigh in the north, under a contract with the CCAC. Due to financial difficulties at the VON, which the VON management in Kingston says came about because they bid too low for that CCAC contract, the VON stopped taking on new referrals at that time.
Dr. Black of the Sharbot Lake Medical Centre was the first to question Mr. Prowse. He recounted that a patient had arrived at the Medical Centre at 8:30 a.m. two days earlier needing a dressing changed, something that in the past had been routinely handled by VON nurses.
We are already very busy at the Medical Centre, Dr. Black told Prowse, and we cant take on more work because home nursing is not available.
Allen Prowse said that, while he was unaware of the specific case Dr. Black was referring to, the CCAC was committed to helping the VON sort out its financial problems in order to remain part of the home nursing system. We want there to be more nurses available, and we can do that by encouraging more service providers, Prowse told the meeting.
Doctors Bell and Black both told Mr. Prowse that the relationship the Medical Centre has enjoyed with the local VON nurses has been beneficial to the care that has been provided in the community.
We often speak daily to local VON nurses about our patients that are being visited by them. The is invaluable, and it must be the most cost-effective way of providing care. I dont see how sending nurses from Kingston, who arent familiar with the community, can be seen as a better option, Dr. Bell said.
For his part, Allen Prowse said he felt it was important to design a bidding process for the next nursing contract, which begins in April of 2004, that will bring stability to the system. He talked about setting agencies bidding for specialised services rather than territory as one possible way of going about the process.
With the spread-out population in this region, I think we need generalised services. We need nurses who can provide a range of service in order to make the system efficient, countered Dr. Bell.
After the meeting, Allen Prowse told the News that there are some specialised services, such as peritoneal dialysis, which cannot be delivered by nurses who dont do the procedure on a regular basis.
While what Prowse said may indeed be true in a general sense, the specific example he used was not accurate. Peritoneal dialysis is done locally by Dawn Peterkin of the Northbrook VON, with backup from other nurses in Sharbot Lake and Northbrook.
A number of VON representatives were in attendance at the presentation by Allen Prowse, including nurses from the Sharbot Lake office, and VON (Eastern Ontario Branch) executive director Carolyn Manley.
I didnt get the impression that he was listening to what the people were saying at the meeting, Cathy Fox of the Sharbot Lake VON office told the News later.
One night earlier, at a meeting in Kingston, VON officials presented their proposal for restructuring to all the nurses and support staff still employed by the agency. It calls for a severe reduction in management staff, the closing of a foot clinic location within Kingston, and a cut of nurses salaries by 5%. A vote is to be taken on the plan in the next few days, and if the plan is accepted by staff it will be presented to VON creditors in early June. If both parties accept the deal, VON management is hopeful the agency will be in a position to bid on the new nursing contract in the fall. If not, the agency will go into bankruptcy.
Nurses at the Sharbot Lake Office were told the VON would be taking new referrals again, but as of Tuesday, May 20, new referrals have not been coming to the Sharbot Lake or Northbrook VON.
