Victorian Order of Nurses to be made redundant

After 110 years of service to the community, the Victorian Order of Nurses were told Tuesday they were disqualified from the tendering process that will decide home care nursing services in the Hamilton region without further reasons.

About 100 VON nursing and administrative staff will be without a job next April, many after lengthy careers delivering home care to patients in the Hamilton region.
VON Hamilton recently was given the Hamilton Spectator Gold Reader's Choice Award in the home healthcare category.

VON is the second agency to find out its services were no longer wanted this week.
On Monday St. Joseph's Home Care was told they were similarly disqualified.
Together, the two largest not-for-profit agencies in the region provide about 80 percent of home nursing care in the region.

"Health minister George Smitherman has delivered a lump of coal into the stocking of almost every home care nurse and patient in the Hamilton area," says Warren (Smokey) Thomas, President of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) which represents the VON workers.

Hamilton home care patients will likely experience disruption to their care during the changeover. In Niagara, where the VON lost the home care contract in 2004, winning agencies struggled to hire enough staff, leaving many patients in a precarious position.

The agencies are among the first in the province to lose home care work as the three-year moratorium on competitive bidding was lifted this fall.

VON workers were told the news at a meeting Wednesday morning.

Luckily, there is also good news.
Recently, VON has been awarded a contract, with Department of Veteran Affairs (VAC), to provide nursing assessment and nursing advisory services on an as needed basis for the province of Saskatchewan.

The five-year contract will begin with the training of VON nurses.
VON will conduct nursing assessment services for VAC clients in their homes or the facilities in which the clients reside.

They will also provide advice on a wide variety of nursing issues related to the care of adult and older clients including mini-mental status, levels of depression, pain and possible placement issues and will prepare reports on the health status and medical needs of the client, which will be submitted to the VAC for review and action.

Source: VON and Marketwire

Editor's opinion:

"How's that for a Christmas present?
Who's going to take care of these poor nurses now?
Unbelievable that it's possible in Canada to be just laid off without further notice!
When you're always taking care of others, it must be hard to believe that the government is not taking care of you and totally disregards the quality award you just deserved."