A heated exchange in the BC Legislature now that Interior Health is seeking private bids on hospital laundry service.
The move could mean 17 jobs lost at Nelson’s Kootenay Lake Hospital and more than 130 elsewhere in the region.
Health Minister Terry Lake says IH and government need to make financial choices on front-line care.
Here’s Nelson-Creston New Democrat Michelle Mungall.
The NDP sees the contracting out of laundry – probably to the lower mainland – as further privatization.
IH argues the laundry equipment is ageing and would cost $10 million to replace when those funds would be better spent on direct health care equipment.
