A funeral s service. will

be held Wednesday for.~

former North Shore

‘ newspaperman and
North Vancouver City
councillor Ralph Hall.

Hall was found dead in his -

West) 12th Street apartmen:
~ on Monday. He was 71.

The service is set for 4
pan, May 27, <at_ the
Richmond Funcral Home,
8420 Cambie %

: .Hall was an sSitor with the
~ North Shore Review at age 19.

Pink Salim A)
Frozen:

The Review was a competitor
of the North Shore Press.

Hall was hired as the
founding editor (of |The
; Citizen in 1959 when former
Vancouver Sun managing cdi-
tor Hal Straight bought the
Préss and renamed it The
Citizen, Hall was the editor at
The Citizen to 1975.

Hall had worked as an edi-
tor and columnist at The
Richmond Nows since 1982.

He served as’ a North
Vancouver City councillor
_ trom 1976 to 1987.

~- Michael Becker

Apnie Juice

Primo Pasta
Assorted Varieties

Local nurse
nominated for
health award

Judy Smith
Contriluting Writer

A North Vancouver
woman who blew the
whistle on overbilling
doctors and poor
patient care at her
workplace is an advo-
cacy award finalist.

Registered nurse Terri
Havill still works at the
Vancouver. Pretrial Services
Centre where she fought for
and won better treatment for
prisoners and nurses.

In his letter to the
Registered Nurses
Association of B.C.
(RNABC), correctional offi-
cer Robert Makison said he
nominated Havill for the
Health Advocacy Award
because of the “guts” she
displayed.

“Througkout name-call-
ing, threats, intimidation etc.
she never faltered in standing
up for what she believed in
«Through Ms. Havill’s
interventuon, more care has
been redirected into direct
patient care at the centre,”
said Makison.

Located in the downtown
eastside, the pretrial centre is
on a health care frontline.

Two hundred and forty
inmates awaiting their day in
court are crammed into the
bleak brown © structure
designed to hold 169.

Broken bones, infected
wounds, slashings and sui-
cide attempts are routine.

Prisoners detoxing from
heroin or other drugs are
common. Conservative esti-
mates say 10% of the inmate
population are human
immunodeficiency virus
(HIV) infected,
hepatitis and others have
full-blown AIDS or tubercu-
losis.

Hired in 1991 as an assis-
tant head nurse, Havill soon
realized that the low number
of nurses treating such high
numbers of inmates was an
unsafe environment.

Havill can’t, ‘discuss past

May 24th to May 30th, 1998
(while supplies last - we reserve the. right to limit quantities.)

20% have

or current conditions at the
centre because of a confiden-
tiality oath, but earlier media
reports quote her describing
one of the many medical
emergencies she faced alone.

“YT had this prisoner lying
on the tloor after a seizure
and another with intense
abdominal vain, and I'm
running to segregation.

“An inmate had cut the
trim off his blanket and
wrapped it around his neck.
He sti]! had a pulse, but he
wasn’: breathing.”

Haviil wasn’t the only jail-
house nurse who spoke out
about the dangerous over-
crowding and excessive
workloads.

She and three co-workers
testified at an inquest for a
prisoner found dead in his
cell after drinking a toxic
cleaning fluid.

“We were initially nervous
about testifving,” said Havill.
“At other inquests nurses
were made to feel the death
was somehow their fault.”

Even before rhe workload
issue came to a head, she
began hearing rumors in
199+ that some doctors were
charging for more hours than
they actually worked.

Alicgedly, physicians
billed $295 and_psycholo-
gists $230 for 3.5 hour ses-
sions even if they spent less
than half that time inside the
prison. She was infuriated by
the reperts.

“I'd looked upon doctors
as ethical professionals,” she
was quoted as saying.

“So I didn’t think they'd
be raking the boots to tax-
payers.”

Since Havill had signed an
oath of confidentiality when
she was hircd, legally she
couldn’: speak out against
the overbilling.

In 1995. though, she got

her chance. Havill learned of

a B.C. Ministry of the
Attorney General program
called Ideas Shine which
invited employees to send in
moncy-saving suggestions.

She “suggested” the min-
istry change the way pretrial
paid the doctors.

When she hadn’t heard
from the ministry after 10
months, Havill filed a free-
dom of information request.

In it she asked for a year’s
worth of psychologists’ and

Fresh Chicken Legs
Back Attached

Campbelis
Chunky Soups

$472

Sunday, May 24, 1998 — North Shore News — 11

Whistle blower vindicated

physicians’ billing records, as
well as their time sheets
showing exactly when each
doctor entered and exited
the facility and how long
each inmate was treated.

She said that according to
the records one physician
and one psychologist spent
less than four minutes on
average with each pnsoner,
and others hadn’t treated any
inmates on days they billed
for 3.5 hours.

When conditions contin-
ued to deteriorare in 1996,
even though she knew break-
ing her oath might get
her fired, she spoke out
to the previncial ombuds-
man and thr B.C. Nurses’
Union.

RBCNU cold the health
ministry and then ihe media
about the overbilling. This in
turn forced the ministry to

order a financial audit of the
jail’s billing pracaves.

Havill said she wasn’t try-
ing to be vindictive.

She beheved if the doc-
tors only charged for the
time they provided real ser-
vices to the prisoners, the
facility would be able to
either hire more nurses or
keep the doctors working
longer.

After the story came to
light, Havill, endured harass-
ment on the job and filed 4
compiaiat.

In mid-1997 she went on
stress leave for several
months. But our of all the
pain came positive changes
for the pretrial centre.

Every doctor alleged to
have overbilled eventually
resigned and after an, irte-

See Jaii’s page 13

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