Keep our Hospital Services - Sarnia Members Demand of Liberal Government

The following speech on hospital cut backs was delivered at a Queen's Park rally on October 13th, 2005 by Claudette Drapeau. Sister Drapeau is a SEIU member at Bluewater Health in Sarnia. The citizens of Sarnia presented a 22,000 signature petition to the Ontario legislature. The petition calls on the government to stop hospital layoffs and cut backs.

Hi, my name is Claudette Drapeau and I'm an RPN on the Rehab Unit at Bluewater Health and also the co-chair and member of SEIU Local 1.on.

I'm here to tell you that Lambton County's Bluewater Health hospital is in dire need of help and to get some relief for the citizens of Sarnia and Petrolia and Lambton County.

We cannot absorb a $14 million cut and not have services impacted.

We are under bedded by 56 beds which were promised years ago and have not been received yet.

We were told by per reviewer Paul Davies, with a non-existent peer review report, that the closure of outpatient labs, diagnostic imaging and EKGs at the Norman St. Site are to close.

We are to cut our Safety & Security, decimate all of our orderlies, cut 33 RPNs and numerous RNs as well as specialized respiratory techs.

We cannot survive these cuts. Our waiting times for tests like CT scans are up to 6 months.

Our OR's will close at 3:00 p.m. - delaying surgeries. If you come into the ER with a broken arm at 4:00 p.m. - too bad! - You wait until next day to have it casted.

We no longer will have a response team for code whites; we will have to wait for police maybe up to 10 minutes, because our safety & security staff and orderlies will be laid off. Do you know what can happen in 10 minutes?

People waiting for dialysis have to travel to London - 600 miles away - 3 times a week because we cannot provide enough of the service. This is not acceptable.

We want the Liberals to know that Sarnia exists. We are not Neanderthals. You were elected to represent us.

We are rising up by the thousands, demanding that you acknowledge us and help us.

We can no longer watch our family members and people we love be so completely ignored by elected officials in the Liberal government.

We were promised a new hospital over 10 years ago and we are still waiting.

The hospital operates from 3 different sites, which cause a $3.8 million deficit yearly. Where is the accountability?

The government has caused this deficit by dragging its heels, yet we pay the price. Show us that you have some common decency and stop killing us. We demand that our Palliative Care Unit be kept open permanently. Restore our services and rescind the lay-offs of all front line workers. We have over 22 thousand names on a petition requesting you to stop the rape of our hospital and our community.

Please listen to us.

Thank you.