Editor:
With reference to a letter from the Sunshine Coast Labour Council of March 31 (“Keep health care public”), I want to add my experience.
Recently I was hospitalized at Sechelt Hospital for two weeks with a broken leg. While there I received excellent care. However, I learned that 75 to 80 per cent of the nurses caring for me were “agency” or “travel” nurses who came from all across Canada. I met only three full-time resident nurses. The “agency” or “travel” nurses are not only paid more but have their travel and accommodation covered too. With accommodation being so tight with high rents on the Coast this is a major consideration and expense.
While these circumstances offer advantages for the largely young nurses I met who want different experiences, a chance to travel, and control over the contracted period of work, obviously, this is costly to our health care system and amounts to privatization, especially since the agencies they contract with are making a profit.
With the huge sums ($64 million in 2022) being allocated to this privatization, why are we not paying our nurses more to attract and maintain full-time and resident employees?
Eleanor Mae
Sechelt
