The Registered Nurses Union is raising alarm over plans to move gynecology services to the Janeway.

The union claims the public is “not being told the full story” and the consequences for women’s health could be “devastating.”
NLHS is in the very early stages of considering moving adult gynecology into space at the Janeway as it looks at more efficient ways to increase available space.

The provincial government set aside $3 million in this year’s budget for the potential move. Interim health minister John Haggie says it’s part of discussions to see if they should replicate a similar model used at the IWK Health Centre in Halifax.

Nurses Union President Yvette Coffey says what the government is leaving out of the equation are “unannounced plans” to move critical care services from the Health Sciences to the new hospital site on Kenmount Road.

Coffey says that means in an emergency situation related to hemorrhaging or life-threatening complications, a patient would have to be transported more than 8 km to the new facility.  She says even in ideal traffic, that could take 15 minutes, or longer.

That, says Coffey, is a lifetime when minutes matter.