HSA in the news

National Post Despite accusations that they are "killers of the sick and elderly," a growing number of B.C. health-care workers are resisting a mandatory flu shot, arguing that it is an issue of personal choice. And now, a union representing thousands of health-care workers in the province, is telling them they have a right to opt out, even if that...

timescolonist.com Byline: Cindy E. Harnett B.C. nurses have voted in favour of a two-year contract negotiated last month with the Health Employers' Association of B.C. More than 32,000 registered nurses and psychiatric nurses across B.C. voted almost 85 per cent to ratify a contract that will boost their pay and replace nurses on holiday or sick leave. In the first...

Times Colonist (Victoria) CORRECTION: (From Times Colonist, October 4, 2012) NURSES' WORK WEEK BOOSTED 90 MINUTES: A tentative agreement between B.C. nurses and the province would boost nurses' work week by 90 minutes beginning April 1, as well as provide the equivalent of 2,125 more nurses across the province by 2016 by increasing total straight-time nursing hours by more than...

Vancouver Sun The B.C. government has reached a tentative two-year agreement with the province's nurses, Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid announced Wednesday. "This is the result of some very hard work on both sides of the table," MacDiarmid said Wednesday as she announced the tentative deal. "Within the two-year agreement we have come to there is a modest compensation increase and...

Vancouver Sun The B.C. Nurses' Union wants to scrap an unpopular workplace attendance scheme imposed by the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and an independent arbitrator has been called in to mediate the dispute. The four-year-old attendance and wellness program was implemented to increase productivity among health care workers by cutting down on sick days, but nurses maintain they are being...

Vancouver Sun By ManoriRavindran, Vancouver Sun August 14, 2012 Since July 24,three non-elective heart surgeries at Vancouver General Hospital have had to bepostponed due to a shortage of heart-lung machine technicians, orperfusionists. The in-patients, all with potentially life-threateningconditions, required urgent surgeries, but their operations had to berescheduled because the only perfusionist available was called in for a doublelung transplant that...

Chilliwack Progress Byline: Robert Freeman Chilliwack was urged at a Tuesday night "town hall" meeting to push back against the pending closure of the rehab unit at Chilliwack General Hospital. Chilliwack-Hope MLA Gwen O'Mahony, who organized the meeting, gamely vowed to carry a call to cancel the closure until all the community's concerns are addressed to Health Minister Mike de...

Chilliwack Times Chilliwack-Hope MLA Gwen O'Mahony will moderate a townhall meeting next week on a decision she has little, if any, power to change. Two months ago Fraser Health announced the closure of the 20-bed inpatient rehabilitation unit at Chilliwack General Hopsital (CGH), a unit that was opened with much fanfare from the BC Liberals in 2006. The decision is...

Prince George Citizen Tim Laidler's Remembrance Day began, as it so often has since his return from Afghanistan in 2008, with a media interview, followed up by a moment of silence for the friends and colleagues he lost to war. At 26, Laidler has become something of a spokesman for combat veterans in British Columbia. His rocky transition back into...

Prince George Citizen Tim Laidler's Remembrance Day began, as it so often has since his return from Afghanistan in 2008, with a media interview, followed up by a moment of silence for the friends and colleagues he lost to war. At 26, Laidler has become something of a spokesman for combat veterans in British Columbia. His rocky transition back into...