Thursday, April 23, 2015

Today is Red Cross day and, as I was having coffee this morning, I wondered how much I could get done before my shift started. By chance I looked at the calendar and realized I was booked in for a Red Cross meeting at 9:30. So not a lot got done before it was time to leave.

The meeting was with the Red Cross management from Nanaimo and Burnaby. I think they expected to meet only with Sheila, the convener, and they were surprised when I showed up along with the President of the Hospital Auxiliary. They want to make a lot of changes to our sanitizing and restocking systems and they are meeting with a lot of resistance.

They would like us to take all our equipment to a shed “out back” rather than doing the cleaning ourselves. They propose taking the ferry across from Comox every three weeks to take the equipment back to be sanitized and repaired, and bring us equipment to take its place.

I flatly refused to even go out to the shed as, being one of the younger volunteers, I think the onus will be on us to do the carting back and forth. There is some talk of the Candy Stripers doing this but the hours we work don’t align, they don’t have insurance, it isn’t what they signed up for, etc. etc.

By noon, after talking with the hospital sanitizing department I think they have changed their minds. At least they are going to take another look at it. They also saw the cramped space we work in so their plans for temporarily storing things in the office won’t work.

By the end of the day, and after five hours with them, nothing is changing for now!

We’re off to the movie tonight and I’m wondering if there is time for a nap before dinner.