Health care in British Columbia was reduced to a bare-bones service as a strike by more than 40,000 hospital employees entered its second day, causing pain and strife for thousands of patients whose surgeries and appointments were cancelled by the dispute.
The strike forced the cancellation yesterday of nearly every non-urgent operation and medical procedure - from knee and hernia operations to ultrasounds and CT scans. Hospitals and clinics were in disarray as managers and non-unionized workers attempted to do the work of striking cooks and porters.
In Vancouver alone, more than 2,000 operations and hospital appointments were put on hold and most operating rooms remained closed as picket lines sprang up around hospitals, clinics and long-term-care facilities.
At the Vancouver rehabilitation centre, where former premier Mike Harcourt was treated when he suffered a broken back, more than 1,000 physiotherapy appointments were cancelled.
"The situation here for patients is disastrous," said Clay Adams of the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority.
"We're seeing patients whose surgeries were scheduled two or three months ago being told their surgeries aren't going to happen and we don't know when they're going to happen.
"A lot of them are devastated."
Many of the calls from patients to the health authority are unprintable, Mr. Adams said.
More than 40,000 members of the Hospital Employees Union went on strike Sunday afternoon after contract talks with the Health Employers Association of B.C., which is bargaining for the province's 330 hospitals, clinics and long-term-care facilities, broke down. The main issue is a contentious plan by the employers to contract out some unionized hospital jobs - including those of cleaners, laundry workers and medical secretaries.
But even in labour-friendly British Columbia, where polls show a growing disaffection for Liberal Premier Gordon Campbell's cost-cutting agenda, tempers were frayed yesterday by the near halt to health services.
Harvey Lier, 73, who is scheduled to have knee surgery next Thursday, said patients are the big losers in the dispute.
Mr. Lier, a Vancouver contractor, said he has been waiting months for the operation and can't walk more than a block without pain. He said he's sympathetic to striking employees but can't agree with their tactics.
If his operation is bumped, Mr. Lier said, he wouldn't be able to work.
"Strikes are always for a good cause," he said, but added: "I'd sure hate to be put out by this. We should not have to wait so long [especially]when you're in bad shape to start off."
The government, whose plans to cut public-sector jobs helped set the stage for the labour dispute, has warned it will use legislation to end the strike if patient care plummets.
Health Minister Colin Hanson told a radio show he hopes the union and its employers can be persuaded to return to the bargaining table.
But union spokesmen said workers wouldn't resume talks until the employers drop plans to contract out jobs. The hospital workers have been buoyed by support from members of other health unions, namely nurses, pharmacists and lab technicians, who have refused to cross the picket lines surrounding hospitals, except for emergency and urgent care.
A showdown between hospital workers and their employers has been looming since the government passed a law two years ago that allows it to reopen health workers' contracts to cut costs. It said it would redirect money saved to patient care.
The health employers have argued that B.C.'s unionized hospital workers are the highest paid in Canada and say contracted workers can do their jobs more cheaply.
It has cited figures that show B.C. hospital cleaners, for example, earn $18.90 an hour. In Ontario, the rate is $17.26 and it is $12.88 in Manitoba.
So far, B.C. health employers have eliminated more than 4,000 unionized hospital jobs and want to cut more.
Louise Simard, chief executive officer of the employers association, said the goal is to cut $250-million over the next three years.
The union has argued this plan will jeopardize patient care. Unionized cleaners and food-service workers, for example, are better trained than lower-paid counterparts in the private sector, spokesman Chris Allnutt said.
On the picket line outside Vancouver's St. Paul's Hospital, medical secretary Melissa Huntley said she has watched cleaning standards deteriorate ever since the work was contracted to a private firm.