Officials with Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) admitted Monday night that they could have done a better job of consulting with the community in the lead-up to the June 1 announcement VCH was closing Shorncliffe and Totem Lodge in 2018 and entering into a contract for long-term beds at a private facility.
But there was no suggestion VCH is reconsidering the plan.
Well over 200 people jammed the Sechelt Seniors Activity Centre for the VCH-sponsored public meeting, as others gathered outside open doors and still more were turned away.
VCH president and CEO Mary Ackenhusen led a delegation from the heath authority that included Sunshine Coast director Lauren Tindall and members of the VCH residential care and human resources teams.
Mary McDougall, president of Trellis Seniors’ Services, the company slated to build and run the proposed Silverstone Care Centre in Sechelt, was also on hand to field questions.
How the plan was decided on, and the possible impact on workers and patients, were the most frequently raised questions.
During her opening remarks, Akenhusen told the crowd that after evaluating Shorncliffe and Totem and finding they no longer met patient needs, VCH was given a rough estimate of $35 million (plus land if needed) to replace or upgrade the facilities.
VCH felt the cost was too high and began looking into other solutions, which led to a request for proposals being issued in early 2015 (it called for companies interested in providing 15 to 25 new beds with the flexibility to expand the number to 125).
Akenhusen said VCH has taken a “patient-centred” approach, and working with a private company will give the community a state-of-the art facility with 20 more beds and no change in the quality of care for the patients. Akenhusen pointed out that VCH already has similar arrangements that are working well thanks to strong checks and balances and the requirement to meet the same standards of care as publicly run facilities.
As for the workers, Akenhusen said VCH will meet with the Hospital Employees Union (HEU) on Sept. 16 to start talking about the transition, and plans to meet with the BC Nurses Union shortly after that.
She also restated VCH’s commitment to ensure Silverstone is a union shop.
Later in the meeting, the HEU’s Jennifer Whiteside said it’s still uncertain how that will play out. Workers at Shorncliffe and Totem “are going to be fired,” said Whiteside. “When and if they’re hired by Trellis, and if we’re there to represent them, we’re going to be negotiating a brand new first collective agreement. They’ll lose seniority, vacation, and their wages won’t likely be what they are in the public sector.”
Akenhusen and the other VCH officials were also asked several times which local bodies they consulted with during the planning process.
Lorne Lewis, SCRD director for Elphinstone and member of the Regional Hospital District (RHD) board, was one of several speakers who wanted to know why a model like the one in Powell River isn’t being pursued here. The Powell River Regional Hospital District is funding the cost of a new building, which VCH will staff and run. He said VCH should have brought a similar idea to the Sunshine Coast RHD.
“Nothing that I’ve heard here instills confidence or gives me peace of mind,” Lewis said. “Moreover, I have to say that I feel like Vancouver Coastal Health went behind our backs as a Regional Hospital District. We should have known about this first!”
Akenhusen acknowledged local leaders weren’t asked directly about the plan. “That said,” she continued, “your community leaders were aware of this because we have governance meetings with them, and it was discussed … What we would have expected is if that was a major flashpoint for [the community] that it would have come up during that period. It did not.”
Akenhusen’s claim that local governments were in the loop drew an outraged response from Sechelt Mayor Bruce Milne.
“I sat on the Regional Hospital District board in 2015. That board was not aware, correct me if I’m wrong. And I was on the governance committee at the time for the new work [at Sechelt Hospital] and we were not aware … For you to so casually and quickly say that our [local] government leaders knew that this was coming, when the first we saw [of it] was on the front page of the Coast Reporter, is a step too far.”
Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons said he too was kept in the dark. “We know that this plan was expected to result in upset and disruption in our community. That is not surprising to Vancouver Coastal Health … Our presence here, and the comments that are coming out, makes it clear that this kind of decision-making that has an impact on our community needs to involve the community.”
“I think that we have already established [tonight] that we did not do a great a job at community engagement,” Tindall said at one point.
One of the key questions McDougall faced was whether Trellis planned to subcontract any of the work at Silverstone.
McDougall said the company doesn’t know yet if they’ll use subcontractors at Silverstone, but they do at other facilities and it isn’t affecting care.
“In our organization, it doesn’t matter where your pay cheque is coming from, we are working together to serve the resident,” she said. “Our focus is on resident service. It’s on quality. It’s on teamwork.”
There were also questions about Trellis’s donations to the BC Liberal Party.
“We are not political players. We are a small business that is interested in delivering service to seniors,” McDougall said.
Other questions related to Trellis’s business model were deferred, because the company is holding its own community session on Sept. 19, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Sechelt Legion.
Near the end of Monday’s meeting, resident John Adams, quoting from Akenhusen’s statement to Coast Reporter last week to the effect that the community would be excited about the project after having a chance to discuss areas of concern, asked her, “How do you feel now?”
“Underappreciated,” she quipped. “But obviously [this project] is not exciting to you, I understand that now.”
Moments earlier Akenhusen had been asked if VCH was prepared to reconsider its plan. Her response was that would be too important a decision to be made “on the spot.”
