The Pasqua Hospital Hair Care Centre has been operating since 1988, and its doors will be closing on July 31. The Pasqua Hospital Auxiliary recently decided to cut off the funding after continued deficits.
“It shouldn’t be all about the money. Where’s our compassion?” Susan Read said.
“This goes along with the rest of our health.”
Read has run the salon since it opened about 28 years ago. The salon doesn’t pay rent, and the expenses are for equipment, supplies, and Read’s salary. The salon does charge for its services, but Read said the intention never was to make money.
The auxiliary first launched an ultimately unsuccessful study to find ways to make the salon more financially sustainable in 2013.
Between November 2015 and April 2016 they tracked the customers at the salon and found it averaged 75 patrons a month. According to their findings, only about 25 of them were patients.
“They felt they were subsidizing the public to come in and have their haircuts done. That’s not what the auxiliary is about. They support patient care items,” Ray Brady, Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region (RQHR) volunteer services manager said.
Brady works closely with the Pasqua Hospital Auxiliary and spoke to Global News on their behalf. He does not have access to their books.
Read said that she does take customers outside the hospital, but for most, it’s out of necessity.
“A lot of my customers bring the bunny bus here in a wheelchair,” she explained.
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“We meet them at the front door, and bring them up because it’s not accessible for them to go downtown.”
Patients that used Read’s service said it helps bring some normalcy back to their lives while they’re in the hospital.
“All of a sudden depression goes, your hair feels clean, you feel… not necessarily attractive again, but you feel human, and it just gives you some confidence,” Glenys Cole explained.
Cole expects to be in the hospital for at least the next month and doesn’t know what she’ll do once the salon closes.
“It’s not like visiting a beauty parlour. You’re coming to visit a bunch of friends,” she said.
Brady said Regina General Hospital has a program where outside barbers and hair stylists come into the hospital, and it’s something that could potentially be looked at for Pasqua.
It’s unknown exactly what will happen to the salon space in August, but Read is pushing RQHR to keep the salon in the hospital.
“Please just let me rent the space, so I can still be here for the patients,” she pleaded.
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