Health Science Professionals
The BC government is increasing the number of training seats for occupational therapy and physiotherapy, with new seats coming to Prince George, Vancouver and Fraser Valley. HSA applauds this announcement. These new training spaces are an important step forward to addressing the growing skills shortage in these professions. HSA has been advocating for increased training opportunities in these and other...
The Health Sciences Association is proud to welcome 31 new health science professionals working at the Canadian Mental Health Association, BC division (CMHA BC), to HSA. Workers were fully united, voting 100 hundred percent in favour of joining HSA. “It is always an incredible moment when we welcome new members into the labour movement,” said HSA President Val Avery. “Through...
CROSSTOWN CLINIC AND THE BEGINNING OF SUPERVISED INJECTABLE OPIOID-ASSISTED TREATMENTS AN INTERVIEW WITH PHARMACIST TWINKLE RUPAREL Twinkle Ruparel is an HSA member and pharmacist at Providence Crosstown Clinic in Vancouver. Crosstown Clinic is like no other in North America. It is the only clinic on the continent “to offer medical-grade heroin (diacetylmorphine) and the legal analgesic hydromorphone within a supervised...
Last fall, HSA announced a $3 million Professional Development Fund funded by the provincial government aimed at supporting health science professionals to undertake professional development to increase specialization, improve health care service to rural and remote areas of BC, and meet ongoing requirements for professional development. In response to high demand for specialized professional development opportunities outside of Canada, eligibility...
Health science professionals working in hospitals and communities throughout the province have voted to accept a new collective agreement that recognizes the value of health science professionals on multi-disciplinary health care teams. With a vote of 82 per cent in favour of the agreement, union members covered by the multi-union Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association (HSPBA) collective agreement have accepted...
HEALTH SCIENCE PROFESSIONALS BARGAINING ASSOCIATION REACHES TENTATIVE AGREEMENT The Report, December 2018 After two and a half months of bargaining, the Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association (HSBA), under the leadership of the Health Sciences Association, has reached a tentative agreement with the Health Employers Association of B.C. (HEABC). “Through two and a half months of bargaining, both the union and...
ADDRESSING YEARS OF EROSION By HSA President Val Avery The Report, December 2018 I am pleased to report that a tentative agreement has been reached between the Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association (HSPBA) and the Health Employers’ Association of British Columbia for the term of April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2022. I’m proud of our bargaining team and their...
Community-based voting on the proposed health science professionals tentative agreement gets underway on Monday, January 7, with information meetings and voting kicking off in Vancouver at the Holiday Inn on West Broadway. The first week of meetings will be for members in Vancouver, Kelowna, Penticton, Vernon, Kamloops, Salmon Arm, Victoria, and White Rock. Members may vote at any of the...
In addition to a general wage increase for all members, this tentative agreement addresses issues that health science professionals have struggled with for the past two decades: valuing the important contributions of each and every member of the health care team, unsustainable workloads, chronic shortages and vacancies of critical members of the health care team, and a dysfunctional system of...
November 9, 2018 After almost 10 weeks of bargaining, a three-year tentative agreement has been reached between the Health Science Professionals Bargaining Association (HSPBA) and Health Employers Association of BC (HEABC). Highlights of the proposed April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2022 agreement include a general wage increase of six per cent over three years for all health science professionals...