The man behind the layoffs at a Burnaby care home for veterans is not confident he’ll get the money he needs to save more than 50 nursing jobs.
Ricky Kwan, executive director of the George Derby Care Society, needs roughly $1 million from the Fraser Health Authority to keep his current nursing staff, but he’s not sure he’ll get it.
“I doubt it. A couple of things, one thing is the amount of lift we are looking into; Fraser Health may not be able to come up with that amount. The second thing, … if Fraser Health is giving George Derby that amount of funding lift, there may be other operators looking for the same deal, which means if I were in Fraser Health’s position, I would have to think about favouritism.”
Discussions with the union aren’t going anywhere, according to Kwan, and he’s not expecting Veterans Affairs to offer more money, so Fraser Health is his last resort.
Kwan has said if he can’t get the funding, he’ll have to continue with the contracting out process he’s already started, which involved laying off more than 50 registered nurses and licensed practical nurses at George Derby. The next step is to replace them with nurses working under a new, possibly non-unionized, contractor at lower wages. The registered nurses were given two-months notice, and the LPNs have six-months before they’re out of work.
Meanwhile, family members of George Derby residents are raising questions about the board and the financials.
Michael Broughton’s 97-year-old father is at George Derby. Broughton applied to be a member of the society, whose board gives direction to Kwan, but Broughton was rejected because the society’s constitution and bylaws forbid staff and family members of residents from joining.
Broughton has concerns about his father’s care.
“Anything that impacts him, he can’t bounce back from. Anything that happens to him, it’s very unforgiving. If he loses muscle tone, he doesn’t have a year to build it back,” Broughton said. “What I’m worried about is there’s no tolerance, there’s no latitude for cutbacks with this age group.”
Mark Jaskela, whose father lives at George Derby, raised concerns that no financial data was presented at a meeting in April, where Kwan informed families about the centre’s money problems.
“How are we supposed to address these matters if we can’t get the basic information on how this place is funded?” Jaskela asked.
George Derby house roughly 300 residents, and only half are veterans. The home was built as a care centre for veterans, but as their numbers decline, so does the attached funding from Veterans Canada, which is part of the reason the centre is losing money.
Fraser Health is not responding to the funding request until it reviews the results of a financial audit for the centre. That should be completed next week.
