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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1985-05-22, Page 1Blyth Bmncn Litrary Box�32 { NOM ry (]Q Blyth, Ont. X OLS .V•,10, JH Wingham, Ontario, Wednesday, May 22, 1985 T E BELGRAVE BROWNIES delighted an audience of more than 250 people at `Clinton when they performed for Betty Clay, daughter of Lord and Lady Baden-Powell and the president of Guiding. Brownies who took part included Sabrena Black, Jayne Vincent Martha Walker - Bolton, Jackie Matisz, Laura Sinclair, Arlene McKeon and (back row) Krista Bird, Che/ta Vair, Sherry Taylor, Sarah McKeon, Ann Garniss, Anne Taylor and Goderich Brownie Angie Leggatt. (Shelley McPhee Photo) Asking for .Z5 per cent raise Seconclary. sch��i teachers to hold strike vote a Secondary school teachers the major issues still out - in. Huron County will vote standing. next week on whether to The, board' offer would authorize a strike if they are bring the maximum unable to agree on a new teacher's salary to $44,120, contract with the county, the maximum vice prin- board of education. cipal's salary to $52,000 and , The strike vote will be held the top salary for a principal May 28, together with a vote to $59,000. The teacher on the board's last offer. If requests are for $45,600, the offer is rejected and the $53,638 and $61,087 respec- teachers vote to strike, they would be in a legal position to begin a strike by June 5. Leaner■Iie times ahead h the form of work -to -rule or Such a strike could take' rotating strikes as well as a C� . full-scale walkout. The request for a vote for Whigharncame from' representativeshospitai of the teachers, who are members of District 45 of the After several 'years of siderable money on hand, Ontario_ Secondary ...School operating withhundreds of both from it'sown 'ac- Teachers' Federation, earli- thousands of :dollars in its cumulated surpluses and er this month. It follows. cash reserves, leaner times from the fund-raising cam - nearly a year and a half of lie ahead for the Wingham paign, it is committed to negotiations, during which and District Hospital. i spending almost $1 million the two sides have been According to the auditor's during the current year, through the steps of report presented to the which will use up the surplus negotiation, fact-finding, hospital board last week, cash. Then it will have to imposing of terms of em- completion of the new operate day-to-day on ' its ployment and finally emergency and out-patient funding from the Health Mediation, without reaching wing and the already- Ministry. a settlement. approved purchase of a new The board is offering an X-ray machine will virtually However, in reponse to a across-the-board pay in- use up the reserves during member fcym board crease of four per cent, the the coming year. member Nancy Exel, Mr. Ssame figure awarded to all'"You're not unhealthy,• but necessarily s that should not its other employee groups you're certainly not as be a problem. tively. (Sixty-five per cent of Theboard is offering to teachers are at the add 9.5 teachers to the maximum.) staffing formula this year at The two sides also are, on a cost of $120,000, while the average, about $100 apart on OSSTF is asking for 17.4 the allowances paid for teachers, costing $309,600. positions of responsibility In terms of class size, the and extra degrees. These board is offering an average range from under $1,000 fora ranging between 15 and 30 bachelor's degree .to, more students depe ing. on the than $4,000 for a coordinator. Please t o Page 5 Cuyvenhoven noted that spending its reserves means the hospital will also lose about $110,000 in interest income, and he asked whether there would also be, a loss of income in other areas. Treasurer Gordon Baxter said he did not know yet. However he pointed out that the hospital still expects to receive about $100,000 this year from its fund-raising campaign for the new wing. The board was toldthat to including the elementary healthy as you have been," Hospital Administrator date the campaign has school teachers, while the auditor Bob Simpson from Norman Hayes said that if cash more than to$3ward in teachers have stuck to their Thorne Riddell told the the hospital tried to paycash 'y goalof and $400,000. toward its original demand of 7.5 per board, in response to a for the radiologyequipment, goal hf campaIt also ses cent.told that campaign expenses question from Dr. Walter which will cost more than to date have been slightly Adding in the incremental Wong. $300,000, it would have a increases awarded to Asked if the hospital is in a over $9,000,isfairly which sp. Hayes p problem with cash flow, "no said is respectable teachers moving up the "very healthy or unhealthy doubt about it", and would considering that expenses salary scale brings the position", Mr. Simpson probably have to borrow for a major campaign are board's offer to 5.1 percent, responded that with the money. while the teachers are spending the board has generally expected to run at requesting 8.6per cent.planned, finishing the ad Responding to.a follow-up between l0 and 15 per cent of In a memorandum' cir- clition and buying radiology ,question from -Mrs. Exel, he the money .raised. culated to all 241 teachers at equipment, • "I would say promised to bring a proposal Those expenses do not the five secondary schools in neither; (you're) right in the for funding the radiology include the hospital lottery the county last week, the middle." board outlines the relative He noted that while the positions of the two sides on hospital still has con - equipment to the finance which has higher costs. committee. because of the prizes given Board member Hans away. Annual RNA gra • ua#ion is held at local h • spital car,The kind of hands-on diplomas and pins, the graduates, as was her provided by registered graduating class members assistant, Mrs. Linda nursing assistants is also were presented with Kieffer. desperately needed in this copies of- The Bedside The remaining members "high-tech" age, Mrs. Audrey Shaw of Owen Sound Specialist, written by Mrs. of the graduating class are: Verna Sterner of Wingham, Cindy Berberick of RR 2, told the 198485 graduating class of the RNA school in another graduate of the Walkerton; Sofia Beyer - school. The books were sbergen, RR 2, Lucknow; Wingham last Friday. Mrs. Shaw, an active RNA presented by the RNAs at the Juanita Colvin, Teeswater; lobbyist, told the graduates Wingham hospital. Ronda Douglas, RR1, of the Wingham school their The retiring director of the Clifford; Donna Elliott, school, Mrs. Jean Ellacott of Brussels; Dorcas Gingerich, program is ranked "first in the province". However Wingham, also was honored Zurich; Betty Ann Goetz, RR with a gift from the 2, Mildmay; Brenda even though they have built a strong foundation of i knowledge, they must keep their skills .current by at- tending seminars, reading • and taking educational and post -basic courses. "Ask questions, speak out .and share your ideas," she urged the 20 members of the 42nd graduating class. Although RNAs are un- certain at the present about their role in the future, Mrs. Shaw concluded they are and will continue to be "an im- portant and vital part of this country's health care system". Janine Donkersgoed of RR 3, Moorefield, was this year's valedictorian. She reminisced about the un- certainty each class member felt last September, how they have grown to be friends and now have a common goal: to uphold the high standards of the hospital. She thanked the hospital department heads and staff for providing- the nursing students'. with the facilities for their training and for their cooperation over the year. Mary Jane Pearson of RR 1, Ethel, was presented with the Proficiency in Bedside Nursing Award, while the Scholastic Achievement Award was won by Colleen Hefkey of Clifford. In addition to their Hackett, RR 3, Lucknow; Elizabeth Huigenbos, RR 2, Wingham; Michele Hum- phrey, Lucknow; Bonnie Hymers, Atwood; Mary Krauskopf, Dublin; Mary Morgan, RR 2, Tiverton; Trudy Short, Teeswater; Evelyn Stroop, . Milverton; Cathy Thomson, Wingham, and Mary Winger, RR 3, Palmerston. A reception followed in the hospital cafeteria. RNA A WARD WINNERS—Top award winners at the,May 17 graduation ceremonies of the 1984-85 registered nursing assistants course are: Mrs. Mary Jane Pearson, RR 1, Ethel, proficiency in bedside nursing; Mrs. Colleen Hefkey of Clifford, scholastic achievement award and Janine .Donkersgoed, RR 3, Moorefield, valedic- torian. The exercises were held at the nurses' training centre at the Wingham and District Hospital.' rd approves increase ip ospital assoc1 membership fees It will cost $5.00 instead of $1.00 for the privilege of taking part in the business at annual meetings of the Wingham and District Hospital Association, if a bylaw change approved by the hospital board is ratified at the annual meeting next month, The increase in the associ- ation's annual membership fee, required for voting at MR. SAKASOV'S class from the Wingham. Public School won first place in the Grade 5 division at the recent Walkerton Rotary Music Festival. The students sang "Here We Come A -Singing" to capture first -place honors. The school's primary and senior choirs also did very well at the festival and there were several individual winners in the solo categories. the meetings, was one of nutnber of changes to hospi al bylaws proposed by th management committee an approved by the board las week. Related changes includ raising the fee for a life membership to $500 from $100 and adding a stipulatio that any member must hav been • a resident of municipality in the hospita area for at._.least..Uwe. months in order to vote at a meeting. a the board agreed to hold the t- • meeting in the auditorium at ethe Wingham Public School. d To be eligible to vote at that meeting, a member must be at least 18 years old e and must have purchased a membership no later than June 5. n e The board also was told a that persons will be per- mitted to buy memberships e.. ff r others,.,provided they biinga letter ' of authorization from that indi vidyal ...Lt.. was..no ted.,. that 'this is in response to questions raised about the sale of multiple member- ships for last year's annual meeting. In related business, the board approved a number of amendments to the medical staff bylaws dealing with appointment and removal of staff members, malpractice insurance and procedural matters. . However an attempt to get the board to approve the terrns.of- reference -for a new "quality appraisal com- mittee"once again ran into opposition. A number of board members expressed , concern that the committee, as proposed, would be cut off from any direct contact with the board, meaning board members might never hear about problems affecting the quality of service. Pointing out that the board holds the ultimate respon- sibility for making sure the hospital delivers,high- quality health care, Nancy Exel said it should have a representative on the committee. This viewpoint was strongly supported by John Schenk, Hans Kuyven- 'O'ther sections.- of the bylaws govern business dealings with the hospital by members of the board of gover cors or their families, membership on the board and board procedures. The proposed changes were read aloud to the board after a show of hands in- dicated that few board members had read them. They then were voted on and passed without opposition. All changesi.still must be ratified by a vote at the annual" Meeting set for June 20. After the board meeting, Treasurer Gordon Baxter said that, pending ratifica- tion, the membership fee will remain at the old level. The board was not told any reason for the proposal to raise the membership fees and no one asked. A similar proposal was voted down at an annual meeting several years ago. However the board was told later in the meeting that, as a result of its recent fund- raising drive, there are now about 600 life members eligible to vote at the meeting. To accommodate the expected high turnout, hoven and Patricia Bailey, who has replaced William Harris as the Wingham council representative. It was opposed, however, by Administrator Norman Hayes and by Dr. • Brian Hanlon, . the hospital's chief of staff and board vice chairman, who argued that the quality' appraisal committee is supposed to be only an in-house . body, reviewing how well various departments are doing what they are, supposed.. to,. and. would not work with a board member on it. A third point of view came from Dr. Walter Wong, who said creating the committee would cause nothing but grief. If it is made powerless, as proposed, its members will be frustrated at their inability to force what they see as necessary changes, he said, while if it is given teeth by being allowed to report directly •to the board it will become all-powerful and 'not even- the board wilt -dare to go against its recommenda- tions. "You are creating a very dangerous dragon which is going to consume all of you," he warned, "and when I'm dead and gone you will remember I said it!" After a lengthy discussion the matter was sent back to the joint conference com- mittee for a re-evaluation of the proposed committee's membership and reporting function. As currently proposed, the quality appraisal committee would be made up of doctors. heads of, departments and hospital staff as well as the administrator.