District assessment decision reserved: A3

THE VOICE OF NORTH AND WEST VANCOUVER

LAYOFFS of 144 staff — mostly nurses — and
closure of 55 beds were announced by Lions Gate
Hospital Tuesday in reponse to budget slashes by

Victoria.
Underfunding of the
hospital's 1982 operaung

expenses by almost $4
million will leave Lions Gate
with just 2.6 beds per 1,000
population on the North
Shore. compared to the
provincial average of 4.5 per
1.000.

FATAL ACCIDENT claimed 13-year
evening when two car travelling »
Highway at Caalleild collided and ove:
a 1975 Pimo which plunged down an «
The other vehicle, a 1981 VW Rabi

Patients waiting for
elective surgery — already
totalling | 700 — will have
their waiti: y period doubled
or even tnpled and there are
already predictions that
elective surgery at LGH
could eventually disappear.

The news was delivered by

’ West Vancouver girl Monday
by side on the Upper Levcls
ned. The girl was a passenger in
ankment and landed on its roof.
-onvertible, overturned on the

By CHRIS LLOYD

LGH Board Chairman Ken
Bruce, who described the
situation as “a tragedy” and
said the board was “stunned
by the lack of apparent
realism” of the government.

The decision follows
Victoria’s insistence that the
hospital make further cuts
to its submitted budget by
7.6 per cent — a _ budget

which Bruce said “had
already been stripped to the

level requested the year
before.”
Ironically, only ai few

months ago Lions Gate was
thinking of offering sub-
sidized housing to attract
nurses from other parts of
the country to work there
because the hospital was
considered so short of
nursing staff. Now any
nurses who have relocated in

order to work at Lions Gate
will be without jobs.

Days of agonizing by the
hospital ‘administration and
department heads preceded
the layoffs decision. Salaries
make up 85 per cent of the
budget at LGH, which is the
largest single employer on
the North Shore, and Bruce
said: “Cutting back staff to a
level of {,.320 emerges as the
only answer.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE Ai2

of nine peopic. The girl was
pronounced dead on arrival at Lions Gate Hospital, where some of the
passengers were released after treatment and others were detained with
injuries. (Colin Savage photo)

IN WEST VAN

Restraint
almost
pushes

trustees

to break
the law

By BILL BELL ~

FISCAL RESTRAINT
demands by the
provincial government
are making West
Vancouver school
trustees willing to do
almost anything to
make ends meet, in-
clading closing a
school on two weeks
notice and even
“breaking the law” by
invoking a user-pay
philosophy for summer
school.

But the West Vancouver
School Board stopped short
of flouung the Public
Schools Act Monday mght,
despite a plead by board
chairman Mark Sager to do
just that.

“T don't care if its against
the law. we should charge a
fee for service during
summer school,” said Sager.

Instead. the board
decided to discontinue the
summer school program,

except in “hardship cases”
CONTINUED ON PAGE Al0

WEDNESDAY
Cloudy with showers

THURSDAY

C ontinuang «loudy