Re: Barrie Advance article on RVH volunteers

I do not share the same rosy glow as the writer does of using volunteers in place of paid hospital staff.

Hospital volunteers are certainly valuable in the gift shop, information desk and coffee bar. But I have strong reservations about volunteers having access to patient charts.

Recently, a hospital volunteer phoned me to remind me of a test that was booked for me.

What if this test had been for a psychiatric evaluation or concerning drug abuse?

Maybe a new mother does not want volunteer staff knowing she has a problem with post-partum depression. Barrie is still a “small town” in many ways and I think confidential medical information has to be securely guarded.

I have worked at Sick Kids for more than 20 years and I do not know of any six-year-old who would happily go somewhere with a stranger, leaving her parent(s) behind in the waiting room.

Why didn’t her parents go with her and stay until she was asleep? What if the child had a major meltdown when the operating door opened?

Regarding the SARS outbreak, what if a volunteer had contracted SARS? Would it have been, ‘Too bad, so sad, call us when you are better’? At least employees would have gotten sick time and disability payments.

Is this the whole point of using volunteer labour, to save on having to pay salary and benefits?

Is this why 10-year-old children are used as school crossing-guards instead of paid, trained adults?

Will it be ‘too bad, so sad’ if a 10-year-old sees a classmate run over in front of them because the driver did not see or ignored a child crossing guard?

At some point, running a business cheap will come home to bite the organization.