Nurses and health care workers will be staging a lunch time protest parade today at UBC Hospital to highlight planned cuts at their facility.
They’re trying to protect key services for patients by highlighting planned cuts to the hospital’s Discharge Planning Unit (DPU). The DPU provides specialized nursing care and rehabilitation services for patients who require longer rehabilitation periods, which frees up acute care beds for patients with urgent, acute health care needs.
And the caregivers — who are members of the Hospital Employees’ Union (CUPE), and the B.C. Nurses’ Union say the proposed cuts could backfire because the patients they care for may end up back in acute care beds. In leaked documents released earlier this week, the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority has admitted that this could well be the result of cuts to services like the DPU.
WHAT: Parade Protesting health care cuts
WHEN: Thursday, March 28, at 1 p.m.
WHERE: UBC Hospital main entrance (at the emergency ward)
— 30 — For more information, contact: Stephen Howard, HEU communications director 604-240-8524 (cell) Art Moses, BCNU, 604-868-4259