Pediatric unit victim of nursing shortage: union
Last Updated: Tuesday, September 9, 2008 | 4:16 PM NT
CBC News
A hospital pediatric unit in central Newfoundland has shut down for at least three months because of a critical shortage in nursing staff, a union official said Tuesday.
Newfoundland and Labrador Nurses' Union president Debbie Forward said the hospital in Grand Falls-Windsor closed the unit Monday, and will stay closed "through to December, possibly indefinitely."
Forward said the decision underscores the severity of a nursing shortage that has contributed to other problems with health-care delivery in recent months.
"It was a complete surprise," Forward said in an interview.
"And it was a complete surprise to nurses, as well, that work in the unit. They were called in by management on Friday afternoon and told that the unit would not be opening after the summer because they didn't have enough nurses to open the medicine unit," she said.
"As a result, the nurses who normally work pediatrics will be displaced throughout the hospital to provide services elsewhere."
She said it is "extremely disheartening" that the hospital, which had already dealt with staffing shortages in obstetrics, is now struggling in another area.
Central Health, the regional authority that manages hospitals, nursing homes and clinics in the region, drew criticism this summer when it alternated obstetrical coverage between hospitals in Grand Falls-Windsor and Gander.
Forward said she is aware that some nurses in the area have already moved away, and that she is concerned others will now leave.
