Nursing job cuts starting to affect patient care in B.C.

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - The B.C. Nurses Union is raising the alarm after eighty more nurses have been handed their pink slips in the Fraser Health Authority.

Registered Nurses at long-term healthcare facilities in the Lower Mainland say they've seen a big drop in the quality of patient care.

In January, ten registered nurses were let go from Surrey's Peace Arch Hospital. Since the move, Nurse Renee Kennedy says patients have suffered. "We're finding increases in bed sores, dehydration and urinary tract infections. There have been many, many studies of why it's critical to have an RN at the bedside."

She says during her overnight shift there's almost no-one left to care for the patients. "I'm the only RN for a building and that's 3 floors and that's 150 residents.  And on the other units I have one LPN and one nurse aid and those are unlicensed practitioners."

The BCNU says these latest cuts will only make things worse. The head of the union Debra McPherson says it has gotten so bad, staff only have time to give some seniors a bath once a week.