Hospital vendor causes concern

By Dan Hilborn
Published July 23, 2005


The new president of the Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation admits that a mistake was made when a private health insurance company was allowed to set up shop inside the lobby of the largest hospital in the Fraser Health Authority this week.

"It was a mistake on my part," said Adrienne Bakker, who was promoted to her new post just one month ago, about the same time that a new vending cart program was opened in the lobby of Royal Columbian Hospital.

"We don't want to create the misperception that we're promoting the privatization of health care," she said on Friday. "Now that I'm aware that it's created some anxiety, it won't be allowed in the future."

The vendor, Clarica, was offered a one-week lease for one of three new vending carts that were placed in the hospital lobby at the beginning of July. The vending carts are owned and operated by a private company - Cart Wheels International - which follows guidelines for leasing the space provided by the foundation.

The retail carts - which typically sell things such as nuts, candies, sunglasses and clothing - brought in about $50,000 of the foundation's total budget of about $5 million last year.

When the salesperson began selling private health insurance at one of the carts this week, several hospital staff members expressed concern about whether it's an appropriate use of the hospital's space.

"My God, we're a public health care facility," said one nurse, who asked to remain anonymous. "By having this kiosk, I see that as supporting the need for private care and I see that as a conflict.

"Private care only meets the needs of people who have the funds to access it, and it draws resources from everyone else.

"Is our public system so dysfunctional that we no longer have adequate coverage and we need to purchase private care?" she asked.

Bakker said the guidelines on leasing the retail carts currently only prevent vendors from accessing the space if their products are already available in the nearby hospital gift shop, which is operated by the separate Royal Columbian Hospital Auxiliary, or if they sell cigarettes, alcohol and aromatherapy.

Bakker said aromatherapy is on the banned list because many people have allergies to scented products.

"We do have guidelines but, to tell you the truth, we created those because we wanted to make sure we were working with the auxiliary and not conflicting with the merchandise they sell," she said.

"I'll probably have to be more vigilant in my screening. If certain companies are slated to come in that would cause some anxiety, we won't bring them in," she said.

"Now that I'm aware that this has occurred and it's affected people, I want to make sure that it doesn't happen again and I'll be telling the company that books them, please don't book companies of this nature in the future.

"This is a bit of a learning experience for me to understand what people are happy with, and hopefully, one of the side benefits of bringing in these carts is that it creates a nicer atmosphere in the lobby."