HOSPITAL CUTS NEXT FOR SOCREDS . . mm 48 P aa al VOL. 38, No. 6 Friday, February 13, 1976 - See below S5bUNE Provincial Communist Party leader, Nigel Morgan, addressi One of several such rallies held throughout the province Story page 3). ig disbelief and amazement # € proposed plan to shut down sie cent of hospital beds this mer at Vancouver General OSpital was expressed this week Y doctors interviewed by the ribune, mee plan to drastically cut back Spital services at the Vancouver Neral came last Monday from : H executive director Dr. Chapin beac a meeting with hospital Pitman Gordon Gilley and es ers of the staff, Key said the ee being prepared is one of a a S of belt-tightening measures aie to save a total of $3.5 lia. this _year. The summer a Own of half the hospital’s mill would save an estimated 10n dollars in salary costs. one board chairman told the ing that factors contributing to the $3.5 million operating deficit in 1975 and the current problems are the extreme shortage of government funds. Dr. Key said that the cost-cutting measures are designed to trim the estimated deficit from the 1976 budget and were being taken in anticipation of a directive from the health department in Victoria. Reports from Victoria indicate that the pressure on the VGH to trim costs and go on to the proposed cutback program are more than ‘‘anticipation.” A health department official in Victoria said no directive had been sent, but he added: “The hospital has been spending at a rate higher than its 1975 budget. The hospital is aware of our budget constraints and aware that there just won’t be any extra money next year.” B.C. jobless rate climbs despite juggled figures Statistics Canada released its monthly progress report this week oy if nothing else is looking up, a Up to 8.5 per cent unemploymen ren numeric terms, 93,000 British C nth, and over 800,000 people were t least the unemployment figures — tin British Columbia for January. olumbians were without jobs last unemployed nationally. In ay aber 1975, B.C.’s unemployment rate was 7.9 per cent. ig or the first time, Statistics Canada used a new method of x €asonally adjusting”’ the unemployment rate, the result being that Ven though 107,000 more people were unemployed in January than in €cember, the national rate fell from 7.0 per cent in December to 6.6 Per cent in January. Opposition SUB gesting “hanky-panky between M.P.’s ridiculed the new system, Statistics Canada and the govern- om to paint an Alice-in-Wonderland picture.” : : Victoria, premier Bill Bennett called the B.C. jobless figure Shocking, but didn’t provide any solutions. ng the rally last Sunday Simon Fraser University, to protest increases in Autoplan premiums. (See —Sean Griffin photos The Victoria official, who remained nameless, told the press that the VGH proposals followed a meeting two weeks ago between hospital officials and Socred health minister Bob McClelland. Although there has been no of- ficial announcement from Vic- toria, it now appears certain that drastic cutbacks in hospital care in B.C. are next in line for the Social Credit government as part of its drive to cut back on services to the people. There is already concern voiced that other hospitals and medical services face a severe slash, and that \ the Socred government may, not approve the construction of the badly-needed child and maternal care hospital at the site of Shaughnessy Hospital. Cutbacks in hospital care has long been a target of the Socreds. The previous Socred government ‘and its health minister Ralph Loffmark ran into severe. public criticism and opposition in their attempts to cut back on hospital care. It was one of the big issues that turned public opinion against the. W.A.C. Bennett Socred government and led to its defeat in 1972. Now the newly-elected Socred government is returning to the attack against hospital care and facilities. Jack Gerow, business manager for the Hospital Employees Union, branded the plan to cut back hospital beds as “‘a scandal” and said it would result in a drastic deterioration in-patient care and could result in layoffs for many hospital workers. See REPEAT, pg. 10 EDITORIAL Never before have the people of B.C. been so aroused against a government decision than they are about the present exorbitant discriminatory and totally unjustified ICBC rates. The last time B.C. saw anything on the scale of the present protest movement, which involves nearly. every part of the community, was over 20 years ago when the public rejected a hike in hospital premiums brought down by the Coalition government. The figures on which the government basis its claim for im- posing the high premiums are fraudulent. Of the three plans put forward by Byron Straight, the insurance actuary and director of ICBC appointed by the government in December to make a study of the corporation, the Socred government adopted the worst and serine plan. n doing so it completely ignored Plan A in Straight’s which provided for a small premium increase this ee er subsidies to ICBC from the gas tax and car licences. This is similar to the demand now being made by labor and concerned citizens’ groups. Not only has the government ignored Plan A in the Strai report. It has totally ignored the statement made by ce about the present rates — that they have been set higher than necessary and are based on the ‘‘most pessimistic” guess. Straight’s statement should have been anough to compel the government to take another look at the proposed rates. But no. The Socred government appears determined to impose these unfair rates on the public. It is determined to establish the principle that the public must accept cutbacks in services and pay more for them. Involved is not only ICBC. The government intends to apply this principle to all essential public services. Hospital cutbacks are next in line Education, transit, hydro, ferries and other services are going on the Socred chopping block if they get away with the ICBC boost The refusal of premier Bill Bennett and Pat McGeer to meet the representatives of the giant lobby on Friday is a gross violation of democracy. The long-established principle of the right of the people to protest and meet with elected represen- tatives on their grievances is being arrogantly rejected by the Socred government. With the B.C. legislature set to open March 17, a massive united movement of the people of B.C. will be essential to halt the Socred government from carrying through its program of slashing people’s services while giving new handouts to the mining and forest companies. With the last car still a long way down the hill, the motorcade that began in Hope some five hours before snakes its way into the Simon Fraser University parking lots Sunday. Made up of more than 500 cars by the time it started up Burnaby Mountain, the convoy took more- than an hour to pass by the university.