Volume 10, 39. Wednesday, February 10, 1988

Nurses Strike Continues

The nurse’s strike continues. At George McDougall Hospital in Smoky Lake the 12 to 16 active bed patients, along with 56 other patients in the auxiliary ward and the nursing home are now being cared for by 7 nurses.

Nurse and Hospital Administrator Grace Regnier, Nursing Supervisors Pat Chern and Frances Mitchell have joined other nurses who have crossed the line.

By putting in 18 hour days the hospital staff who are there are coping. Only surgery that would have been transferred anyway has been sent to the city. Ambulance attendants are helping the hospital as best as they can with the emergencies. It’s now day 15 in the strike.

At Vilna Hospital many of the patients have been transferred to Redwater. Only June Haydak the Director of Nursing is on staff at Vilna.

Nurses at both Redwater Hospital and Elk Point have refused to join the strike and are taking patients from elsewhere. Nurses in Vilna have said they would be available for emergencies at any time.

Nurses now earn from $14.00 to $17.00 per hour. Besides the pay, one of the main issues is the legislation refusing nurses the right to strike, but allowing the government to declare an arbitrator’s decision null and void.

Rural Hospital Boards are caught in the squeeze. In the 1987 – 88 budget the provincial government cut grants by 3%. Next year’s budget will go up by 1.5% but the health care inflation rate is 5% per year. In real terms the rural hospital boards are faced with an 11.2% decrease over two years. Services will have to be cut.

Hospital Boards are funded totally by the provincial government and are not allowed to requisition any extra funds from local millrates, lotteries or taxes. Patients are asked to see doctors in their offices, not the hospitals.

NB: By press time 3 more nurses had crossed the line.

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