The Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) announced Friday that it has been given responsibility for the broad range of consolidated health services in the Lower Mainland.
The move brings Pharmacy, Diagnostic Imaging, Facilities Management, Integrated Protection Services, Biomedical Engineering, Business Initiatives and Support Services, and Health Information Management under the direction of PHSA.
Pathology and Laboratory, Information Management and Information Technology Services (IMITS) and Interpreting Services were already under the PHSA umbrella. And B.C. Clinical and Support Services (BCCSS) was also recently transferred back to the health authority.
In a memo circulated today, PHSA CEO Carl Roy states that “staff will continue to work for their existing health authority at their existing sites, supporting and enabling care. There will be no unionized job loss resulting from the consolidation…”
HEU secretary-business manager Jennifer Whiteside says she expects that members will not experience any immediate changes in their workplaces, and that shop stewards can expect little change in their relationship with employer representatives at this time.
“Our union is monitoring these developments to ensure that members’ rights are protected and to ensure that this reorganization does not put services at risk,” says Whiteside. “The priority for us is stability, and the protection of publicly delivered health care and jobs.
“Beyond that, we will continue to communicate our strongly held view with employers and government that any restructuring of health services must result in a strengthening of the public health care system – not further fragmentation.”