Scores of surgeries scrubbed as N.L. nursing strike looms
Surgeries and services at hospitals across Newfoundland and Labrador are being cancelled as administrators prepare for a nursing strike next week.
The Newfoundland and Labrador Nurses' Union, which represents more than 5,000 workers, will be in a legal strike position next Wednesday, although the union insists its is effectively being locked out by a government-led move to enforce an essential workers agreement. The union had wanted its members to boycott assigned overtime.
Three regional authorities — Central Health, Western Health and Labrador-Grenfell Health — have already publicly issued their contingency plans, detailing how they will function once the strike formally launches.
Eastern Health, by far the largest health authority in the province, is still assessing which specific services, clinics and procedures it can maintain. A full plan is not expected until late Tuesday, an official told CBC News.
Eastern Health will close 11 of the 19 operating rooms in St. John's hospitals, and dozens of day surgeries are being cancelled.
"During the strike period, Eastern Health will only deal with urgent and emergent cases in areas that require nursing care," acting CEO Louise Jones said.
That will be the case in hospitals in other areas. Outside of Eastern Health, patients have been given detailed breakdowns on which services will continue and which will stop.
Major nursing homes will remain fully staffed, but some may not be able to accept new patients.
As well, once the strike starts, many hospitalized patients will be discharged.
'Going to be bad for those who are sick'
At the Health Sciences Centre in St. John's, patients seem resigned to difficult times ahead.
"It's going to be bad for those who are sick. I feel sorry for them," said Martin Benoit.
"I'm worried about it," said Arlene Eddy. "I've been worried about it for some time, but I don't know what you're going to do about it."
The dispute between the Nurses' Union and the provincial government is focused on two issues.
With one, the government wants the right to pay a newly hired nurse more than a colleague doing the same job, as long as the position has been declared hard to fill. The Nurses' Union says that provision alone undercuts the principle of collective bargaining.
With the second, the government wants to be able to terminate a nurse's job two years after the worker is deemed permanently disabled.
Monetary issues, including raises to the starting and top wage scales, have been settled, although Premier Danny Williams warned this week that those provisions will come off the table if the nurses are legislated back to work.
Williams has refused to give in on the union's demand that the matter be sent to binding arbitration.
The spectre of the strike hung over the house of assembly, where members debated through the night on the government's legislative agenda.
Liberal Leader Yvonne Jones said Friday her own tiredness was put into perspective when she heard from a nurse who had just finished a 24-hour shift.
"All of a sudden, it struck me. I can't imagine what it would have been like to administer health-care services after being on your feet that long," Jones said outside the house, "to be at somebody's bedside, knowing that their life probably depends upon the decisions that you were going to make at any moment."