That's sucking money away from the front lines and we don't think it's right

One of our BC Conservative candidates had the following question asked of him by someone in the nursing field.  

QUESTION:
What is the BC conservatives stand on the issues the BC Nurses Union faces in the province, and in general what is their stand on unions. I am little concerned about the potential for union busting as a means to cut wages so that corporations can save money. Given I am a female in a predominately female profession if it weren't for the union I do not think I would be making the wage I am able to make now. 

RESPONSE:
As John Cummins pointed out at the budget unveiling, we're not interested in creating labour strife.

We're more interested in the fact that block funding has created a bureaucratic nightmare. In Interior Health alone there are over 2500 directors and managers. There's a manager of this and a director of that and an overseer of some sort for pretty much everything (recalling Monty Python's Minister of Silly Walks). The support structures build around that top-heavy bureaucracy are groaning with overstaffing. Almost half of them make over $100,000, in a geographical area in which the median income is around one third of that.

That's sucking money away from the front lines and we don't think it's right. That's where we're interested in streamlining. There are other associated problems with management that we're going to be looking into as well.  It is not the frontlines we're interested in ... that actually has to be strengthened.  

Now I actually did some research on staffing, with the Interior Health Authority, and here is what I found. There is a 9 person Senior Executive team which is responsible for day-to-day operations and management  ... plus a member Board of Directors ... plus 2,500 Directors and Manager.  

Total administration and management = 2,518 ... and that is for approximately 18,500 employees / staff. 

I'm not saying the answer is "No", however do we really need to have one management / administration person for every 6.3 employees? 

Salaries, of course, take up a huge bite from the health care budget -- including management.  It's difficult to find information, however in a story from the Kamloops Daily News, in January of last year, it noted the following:

Top staff at IHA (all figures exclude pension amounts)

• Chief Executive Director ... in 2010/11, his new position boosted his pay to $346,014, up 18 per cent from his old pay rate.
• Vice-President Community Integration ... earned him $232,066 in 2010/11 — 11 per cent more than his old job the year before.
• Vice-President Tertiary Services ...  new title and job boosted her pay by 2.6 per cent to $253,105.  This individual retired and replaced in the Spring of 2011.
• Vice-President Acute Services was paid $227,766 in 2010/11 — 21 per cent more than the year before in his old position.
• Vice-President Residential Services and Chief Financial Officer. In 2010/11, she earned 31 per cent more, at $214,469.
• Vice-President Communications / Public Affairs, doing Corporate Communications, Health Promotion and Community Engagement. That job increased her salary by 12 per cent to $134,832.
• Vice-President of Planning / Strategic Services, getting a 22 per cent pay hike in the process that put his earnings up to $163,105.

A news story from the BC government news room (Premier Announces Investment inRedevelopment of Royal Inland Hospital) date July 2012 stated:

"Interior Health is committed to providing quality care, and today's announcement that the provincial government is moving forward with redevelopment at Royal Inland Hospital will ensure health professionals will continue to provide outstanding care that area residents have come to expect, " said Interior Health chair Norman Embree. 

Since 2007, about $80 million in investments have been at Royal Inland Hospital. This includes $27.5 million for second floor redevelopment and new MRI, $17 million for Hillside Centre mental health facility, $11 million to relocate the intensive care unit and $10.75 million for medical device reprocessing department redevelopment.  

But ... how does that compare with say the Okanagan region covered by IHA? The Interior Health Authority 2012 /13 to 2014/15SERVICE PLAN (July 2012) provides us with this information: 

Kelowna General Hospital - Patient Care Tower
Vernon Jubilee Hospital - Patient Care Tower and UBCO Clinical Academic Campus
Total Project Cost:  $436.1 million 

Kelowna General Hospital - Interior Heart and Surgical Centre
Total Project Cost: $381.5 million 

Kelowna General Hospital - Coronary Revascularization Transition Plan
Total Project Cost: $21.1 million 

Vernon Jubilee Hospital - P3 Maintenance Obligations
Total Project Cost: $3.6 million 

That's a combined total cost of $842.3 million dollars -- more than ten times the investment made in Kamloops by IHA. 

ER doctors in Kamloops are concerned about the conditions for patients ... nurses are concerned there are not enough staff ... and the day-to-day people needed to maintain and operate facilities seem to shrink. 

We need to spend smarter -- we need to take a hard look at how we can provide more front line staff and workers -- and we need to ensure that our facilities in Kamloops are the best they can possibly be. 

Let's 'stay sharp' Kamloops.  

I'm Peter Sharp -- I'm a BC Conservative -- and I BELIEVE in BC.