; Father dismayed at state of affairs No bed at Mills for new mom ( ‘ t. t ‘ A NEW mother had to sleep ‘ ' i on a folding chair for part of last week because there weren't enovgh beds avail- able at Mills Memorial Hos- pital. Penny Wright gave birth ‘Saturday, Jan. 23 and went ‘home twe days later, but : was back at the hospital by i | Wednesday, Jan. 27 when ' baby Thomas was admilted + for jaundice. |’ Since Wright is breast- “+ feeding, she had to stay : Close to her newborn, Hospital staff couldn't find her a bed because the 29-bed hospital already had 39 admitted paticnts at that said father Kelly -*There just wasn’t a bed available,”’ “he said. ‘So after. about five and a half hours they located a chair a hard vinyl chair that’ folds down to forma bed,” OP ~ nnn The fold down chair was - inva ‘rooin also occupied by a en ; male patient, A complicating — factor arose in that the baby was considered a patient, not the an unusual situation for new mothers whose babies PENNY WRIGHT iT sleeps on a fold-down chair at Mills ‘ale re-admitted when the hospital is full. Memorial Hospital four days after giving birth. It's not tolerable because they’re . Michael Leisinger says the The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 3, 1999 - A3 By the following night, ; a {normal bed came available ‘for Wright so long as new thigher : priority patients ‘werent admitted, he added. , “I?m a little dismayed,”’ ‘Head said. ‘To be put into a ‘hard plastic chair four days ‘after giving birth in a sup- iposedly developed country working very hard,’’ he said. - Mills and the regional health care services society do have a grant to provide assislance to breastfeeding mothers but that does not in-. clude provisions for hospital stays should a baby be re- adinitied after birth. Hospital adininistrator hospital does what it can to ensure mothers like- Wright can be close to their babies if they’re re-admitted. But he said that isn’t al- ways possible if the hospital is full. . “It’s an acute care hospi- tal,’’ Leisinger said. ‘“We are here to treat those that need the hospital bed. In an _ instance where we are just jammed full the priority has to go to the acutely ill patient.” He said bed utilization statistics indicate the hospi- tal hasn’t becn consistently exceeding its goal of keep- ing the number of admitted patients to no more than 25. “For the last couple of months we’ve been doing quite well — it’s been hovering around the 25 mark,’ he said. “It’s only in the last week or so that our numbers lave started to increase.”? Hospital officials try to discharge patients early, limit admissions to only necessary cases, and cancel elective surgery when the hospilal is full. that prides itself in its health icare doesn’t seem right.’* : “The fact they’ve only al- ilotted this hospital 25 beds ‘when it’s considered to be ithe regional hospital is a little hard to believe.” i He said his beef is with igovernment spending ipriorities that pour money tinto things like fast ferries while ignoring the need to recognize the regional ser-. ivice the hospital provides. , He added the staff at the ‘hospital is excellent and are snow plow method discounted IT’S the fantasy of everyone who shovels their driveway —a mechanism that somehow prevents that huge ridge of snow from being left behind when the grader gocs by. It exists, but it’s not something public works officials are recommending. The gadget is called a grader gate and it's installed on the blade of the grader, says assistant director of engineering Herb Dusdal. The gate comes down as the grader passes in front of a driveway and it keeps the snow accumulating in the blade from being deposited until the plough passes the driveway. The grader gate is used to keep driveways in Kitimat only grade in first gear." The result, he said, is it takes three times as long as norma! to grade streets with gate-equipped praders. Tf the city wanted to maintain the cxisting speed of ser- vice, he added, it would have to have three times as many graders in service — costing three times as much money. There’s also confusion about the level of snow at which ploughs begin operations. Kitimat’s policy says snow clearing begins when a snow- fall is one inch deep and continues to fail, and full clearing operations kick in when accumulations pass the three-inch mark, ‘doing the best they can from being ploughed in. Terrace’s policy doesn’t set out any specific levels at ;within unreasonable finan-' “But ‘District of Kitimat staff don’t recommend it, says which clearing happens. — .cial restrictions. Dusdal. Dusdal said the Terrace response depends more on : “Its the people up there ‘that are making the care weather conditions, the type of snow and weather expected after the snow than how much actual snow has fallen. “Kitimat tells us don’t ever get involved wiih it,’? Dus- dal says. *“You have to grade so slowly with it — you can _J ito Terrace for funeral services. News In Brief Memorial cairn planned TRANSPORTATION and highways ministry workers are planning to crecl a caim along Highway 37 near Bob Quinn Lake, where two ministry avalanche tech- nicians were killed in an avatancte last month. Al Evenchick and Al Munro were stnick by a avalan- che Jan. 8 while they were testing the stability of the snowpack fo ensure the highway remained free of slides. now slides. Plans for the cairn are preliminary, since decisions won't be made until May, said highways ministry regional director Dirk Nyland. Liberals to visit PROVINCIAL LIBERALS are planning a swing through the northwest on their way to a northern policy convention in Prince George the end of February. The plan is for some MLAs to be here Feb. 24 and in Smithers the next day before heading to the convention Feb. 27, This follows a Liberal decision to learn more aboul the northwest. Airline flights get pricier CANADIAN AIRLINES and Air Canada are charging $15 extra on round-trip domestic flights, The fee is meant to reflect hefty charges each airline now has to pay to NavCanada, the operator of the country's air traffic control] and navigation systems that were privatized two years ago, Canadian Airlines officials said its practice to date of swallowing the NavCanada fees was costing it $69 mil- lion a year, and full phase-in of navigation casts was expected to boost that amount to $131 million. The fee will be $30 for U.S. and international flights. Urged to vote yes THE PARAMEDICAL Bargaining Association is urging its 10,000 members to vote in favour of a mediated report that would settle a collective agree- ment with their health cate employers. But the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union, part of the joint bargaining association, wants its members, which include public health inspectors, drug aud alcohol counsellors, nutritionists and dental hygienists, to reject mediator Brian Foley’s report. The report calls for a smail increase in on-cali pay, improves long-term disability benefits and eliminates the large disparity in wages between community-based and hospital-based paramedical workers. . Talks between the Paramedical Professional Bargain- ing Association and the Health Employers Association of B.C. brake down Jan. 8, resulting in rotating strikes. Paramedicals will vote Feb. 22-25. . Victims identified CORONER Robert Minhinnick has identified the bodies of two people who died in a Gitwinksihlkw (Canyon City) house fire Jan. 23. Clark Calder, 29, and Irene Azak, 31, were identified through dental records. 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