Retired NRGH employee Diana Owens of Gabriola Island brought her goats as a morale boost for her former colleagues at a staff appreciation event on Monday, Sept. 27. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Ian Holmes

community support

Nanaimo Hospital staff appreciation event counters ‘disappointing’ protest

Sep 27, 2021 | 3:00 PM

NANAIMO — Management at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital staged an event for its increasingly relied upon staff following a boisterous protest earlier this month.

The gathering outside the hospital’s front doors and inside the lobby took place on Monday, Sept. 27, featuring entertainment, therapy animals and food.

A torrential downpour of rain didn’t prevent staff from stepping outside to take a brief reprieve from their daily grind.

“The vast majority of people in our community are about supporting our hospital and I think that’s what we just need to be focusing on is that positivity,” NRGH operational director Marci Eckland told NanaimoNewsNOW at the gathering.

A protest drawing 300 to 400 people to streets surrounding the hospital on Sept. 1, from people primarily opposed to the province’s then pending vaccine passport program was “pretty disappointing”, according to Eckland.

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She respects people’s right to protest, but didn’t feel the venue and actions by some of the participants that day were appropriate.

Wendy Wearne, retiring coordinator of site operations at NRGH helped coordinate the event. She felt it was important to support their staff in a meaningful way.

“We knew that we had to balance it and so the word got out that we were actually doing something and everybody jumped on board.”

A smaller staff appreciation event was originally envisioned, the first since the start of the pandemic, Wearne noted.

Then several members of the business community stepped up with generous donations following the protest.

Wearne said she was pleased to see such overwhelming support in the community and among their staff to make frontline health professionals feel appreciated.

“It’s tough and it feels like it’s going to stay that way and this just felt like the least that we could do,” she said.

Nanaimo resident Greg Tomkins handed $5,000 worth of spa gift certificates for NRGH staff to Nanaimo & District Hospital Foundation chief executive officer Janice Perrino. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

NRGH has been relied on more heavily in recent weeks with patient transfers from other parts of the province more severely impacted by COVID-19, according to Island Health’s executive medical director Dr. Steve Loken.

He said NRGH staff are stepping up in challenging conditions.

“Our staff are really going the extra mile in taking care of patients from all across the province now. It’s fantastic to see the support from the foundation and the community in giving them that recognition,” Dr. Loken said at the staff appreciation event.

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ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes