STAFF SHORTAGES ROOT OF RUH UPKEEP WOES
Workers can’t get it all done
Vacant maintenance and cleaning jobs are contributing to the aging Royal University Hospital’s shabby condition.
Despite the health minister’s comments last week that new processes and audits have improved the shape of Saskatoon’s flagship hospital, people who use the building say there are filthy patches, holes in the floor of the emergency room, window trim held on by medical tape, and many other worrisome sights.
“Essentially, the hospital is falling apart. It’s totally decrepit. Things are breaking down and nothing is being repaired,” said Jan Hyde, a retired nurse.
Her 92-year-old mother had a stroke last week, and she’s horrified by the state of the emergency department and her mother’s room, she said.
She saw gravel along the edges of the floor of her mother’s room, and paint peeling away from the walls.
“I know a lot about germs and superbugs. I honestly don’t think (RUH is) safe these days because (it’s) not clean,” Hyde said.
Another witness sent pictures of RUH to The StarPhoenix, showing ceiling tiles displaced with tubes draining from the ceiling into a bucket, peeling and cracked paint, dirt buildup on the floor behind doors, rusting pipes, a hallway door covered in black smudges, and a bucket catching drips outside an operating recovery room.
The pictures were taken the day after Duncan made his comments in the legislature.
“I’m sorry, it’s not fine. I think as taxpayers and people who need these essential services, we need to speak up and the government needs to hear us and realize these are things that really matter,” Hyde said.
Patients aren’t the only thing being triaged at the hospital. Managers send short-staffed workers to clean patient rooms before hallways and stairwells, says Nilesh Kavia, vice-president of finance and corporate services for the Saskatoon Health Region.
“If there’s a demand for clinical cleaning, that’s where you go first,” Kavia said.
The hospital has 143 full-time equivalent housekeeping staff, Kavia said. Six of those positions are currently vacant and posted, and an average of 10 workers call in sick per shift, Kavia said. The jobs have a high turnover, and replacing staff quickly isn’t easy, he said.
The region has converted some part-time jobs to full-time in an effort to retain workers, and is in the process of signing up more casual workers to fill in for illnesses and vacations. Kavia said the region has also started housekeeping audits, including swabbing and testing some areas for microbes, and marking the floors with invisible ink, then checking them with UV lights after a cleaning.
The health region is also struggling to hang on to maintenance staff, Kavia said. Ten of 45 fulltime equivalent maintenance jobs at RUH are vacant. The region has posted the jobs several times without filling them, he said — likely because they’re competing with the private sector for skilled tradespeople like electricians and plumbers.
Some of the tubes draining from ceilings are a result of construction work to attach a new provincial children’s hospital to RUH. Steam heating pipes are also leaking, and the hospital can’t replace them until it’s warm enough outside to turn off the boiler.
Housekeepers and maintenance workers at RUH regularly tell their union they can’t keep up with the demand, said SEIU West president Barbara Cape.
They’re working overtime, they’re tired, and their morale is suffering because they can’t bring RUH up to the standard the public expects, Cape said.
“It’s good to audit the work that you’re doing, I think that’s crucial. But if you don’t have enough people to provide that service, you’re still running to catch up.”
Cape said the region is contracting out electrical and plumbing work to catch up, paying private companies more than twice the hourly rate a region employee would earn.
Kavia said the region has to use contractors to get critical repairs done.
In its submission to the provincial government for capital funding for next year, the region has asked for more money to improve conditions at RUH; Kavia wouldn’t say how much.
In the past year, the building has experienced an electrical failure, plumbing problems, and a flood.
An engineering report prepared every five years on health care buildings across the province contains an updated assessment of RUH’s state. However, neither the health region nor the provincial Ministry of Health will release any parts of the report or reveal its conclusions.
Although Kavia said the report states RUH needs repairs in the “tens of millions” of dollars, he said it is a dramatic under-estimate, because it doesn’t take into account that a hospital must keep running while systems are repaired and upgraded.
The provincial budget will be tabled in the legislature next Wednesday.
The health region is also setting up an energy performance contract, which proposes to make $40 million in building efficiency upgrades, which it will then save on utility bills.