Florence Nightingale may be plotting to kill us…

There was a time when people like Nightingale were a model of our public servants and a matter of pride. But in our culture, sometime during the 1970s, public service began to become a matter of entitlement.

When I was young, my mother, who was a registered nurse, became a member of the opening crew for the new Maple Ridge Hospital. She was truly a Nightingale of the maternity ward until the early ’70s.

I remember the night she came home from her shift and realized that, because of the union agreements which had just been signed with the new Dave Barrett NDP government, two practical nurses on her shift were making more money than she was.

And more importantly, she was personally legally responsible for their actions.

Bernice Gehring and other union organizers changed my mother from Florence Nightingale to Che Guevara.

The industrialized union leaders, losing their clientele, switched to the public service. So, instead of the concept of serving the public, they moved to an entitled group with incredible benefits which are not sustainable.

What amazes me the most is that the nurses’ union my mother helped form has degenerated to a level where nurses are allowed to potentially kill.

According to Dr. Bonny Henri of the BC Immunization Program, inoculating health-care workers, especially those who have contact with immune-deficient patients, is a no-brainer.

So the health districts asked everyone who was dealing with high-risk patients to get a flu shot or wear a mask, and the CEOs of the health districts attempted to make it a condition of employment for all health-care workers.

BC Nurses’ spokesperson Debra McPherson objected.

The Minister of Health capitulated.

During the past 20 years we have averaged between 5,000 and 49,000 deaths, North America-wide, from the flu. This year, the estimate is 50,000-plus people.

Our health districts pleaded and eventually threatened the health-care workers to get a flu shot or wear a mask. McPherson said, “But it has to be a matter of choice.”

Are you kidding?

I’ve heard some nurses say that the flu is a way of culling the weakest among us and saving taxpayers money on health care.

Dr. Henri said that is sick, because the worst way you want to die is with the flu: “It is not a pleasant way to pass.”

While most health-care providers recognize this reality, and compliance has jumped from 30 to 70 per cent, my question to the other 30 per cent is: “Are you nuts?”

My mother would never understand why these people would not want to protect their patients. Apparently union members are allowed to recklessly bring viruses in to workplace without recourse.

At what point does it become manslaughter or negligent homicide?

– Gordy Robson is a former Maple Ridge mayor and a local businessman raised in this community. His opinion column appears Tuesdays in the print and/or online versions of The TIMES. Questions and reactions can be emailed to Gordy c/o editorial@mrtimes.com.