[news] Nurses Claim Privatization Deal Threatens Safety, Province Boosts Take

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-----Forwarded Message-----
From: Will Offley <willo at lynx.bc.ca>
To: project-x at resist.ca
Subject: [pr-x] Today's Georgia Straight
Date: 21 Aug 2003 20:45:19 -0700

Nurses Claim Privatization Deal Threatens Safety
Province Boosts Take

Five emergency-room nurses at St. Paul's Hospital have alleged to the
Straight that a recent decision to privatize health-care
security services will jeopardize people's lives. Three of those
nurses--Alison Jordan, Kate Honner, and Hilary Henley--told the
Straight they didn't object to having their names published in the
paper.

"The employees are brassed off like you wouldn't believe," Jordan said.
"This decision is so incredibly inappropriate."

However, an executive whose security company recently won a lucrative
contract has claimed that his nonunionized staff have
superior training than their counterparts in the Hospital Employees'
Union.

"There has been a bunch of propaganda and misinformation out there," Leo
Knight, senior vice-president of Paladin Security Group
and a weekly columnist for the North Shore News, told the Straight. "It
is part of our mandate to review existing procedures and
suggest ways to improve and enhance the service, not detract from the
service. We intend to do that."

On August 14, the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and Providence
Health Care announced that Paladin signed a five-year,
$23-million agreement to provide security services at nine health-care
institutions, including St. Paul's, Vancouver Hospital and
Health Sciences Centre, and Lions Gate Hospital.

The St. Paul's nurses said they work at an inner-city hospital with a
unique clientele. They claimed that Paladin will not be able
to provide as much protection or professionalism as the existing
hospital security staff, who will lose their jobs in November.

"It's a small department. They're saving a ridiculously small amount of
money," Jordan said. "It's more about union-busting."

Honner said that many emergency-ward clients are addicted to drugs, have
a sense of entitlement coupled with a very short fuse, and
don't respond to logic. She said she is threatened physically about once
every shift, and credits staff security for dealing with
patients competently yet with compassion. "It's the most violent place
I've ever worked, but I've never felt so safe," Honner said.

Henley said that St. Paul's is special because the staff work together
as a team. She predicted that many emergency-room nurses
will find work elsewhere after the staff security people are replaced by
Paladin security guards.

"There is a shortage of emerg nurses all over the city that will be
absorbed by different hospitals if we're not able to be kept
safe," Henley said. "None of us will end up staying."

Roger Kishi, a security supervisor who has worked at St. Paul's for 16
years, told the Straight that he has spoken to staff who
literally fear for their lives. Kishi said that this year, there have
already been more than 300 incidents of violence at the
hospital.

"One of the big things we're facing right now is a lot of drug-induced
psychoses from crystal meth," Kishi, an HEU shop steward,
said.  "It takes four or five people to hold the person down so you can
apply restraints so they won't hurt themselves and they
won't hurt other people."

On August 14, the HEU issued a news release alleging that privatizing
security put patients and workers at risk. The HEU also
claimed that just a week earlier, a Paladin manager was receiving
training in how to deal with violent incidents involving
psychiatric patients.


Knight described this allegation as "drivel", claiming that this
manager, Miles Chown, actually trains security personnel in
dealing with psychiatric patients. According to Chown's résumé, which
Knight faxed to the Straight, he was security coordinator
and assistant manager of safety services at Vancouver General Hospital
from 1980 to 1993, then worked as security manager at
Nanaimo Regional General Hospital from 1993 to 1995.

>From 1996 to the present, according to the résumé, Chown was a
self-employed safety consultant in Nanaimo, and he has training
and certification in numerous areas, including disaster planning,
earthquake search and rescue, health-care management, and
nonviolent crisis intervention. "He is certified to train in more
courses than you can think of," Knight said.

Vancouver Coastal Health Authority spokesperson Viviana Zanocco told the
Straight that the contract with Paladin will result in
security-staffing hours increasing by 23 percent and annual savings of
$1 million across the system. She said that VCHA security
staff are paid more than $19 per hour.

Knight said that for competitive reasons he would not reveal how much
Paladin will pay its hospital security staff, but he claimed
they will be the highest-paid private security guards in B.C. He also
said Paladin has provided security at many hospitals,
including Vancouver Hospital, Royal Columbian, and Surrey Memorial.

Knight also emphasized that his company introduced a mandatory certified
course in health-care security, which includes dealing
with psychiatric patients. "We do training on everything from
blood-borne pathogens to nonviolent crisis intervention," he said.

After winning the competition to provide security services, Paladin
hired the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority's director of
security services, Archie Fisher, as its new director of health-care
security. According to Zanocco, Fisher was on one of four VCHA
committees that evaluated the bids to provide security services.

Knight said that his company asked for permission to speak to Fisher.
Zanocco said Fisher signed a confidentiality clause promising
not to reveal anything about the tendering process.