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Please reconsider contract

Letters

Editor:

This letter was sent to Health Minister Adrian Dix, parliamentary secretary for seniors Ronna-Rae Leonard and MLA Nicholas Simons.

As a citizen of the Sunshine Coast about to enter my sixth decade of life, I am writing to you to please reconsider the decision to award the contract for a new seniors facility to a private enterprise. The NDP had always been in staunch support of publicly funded health care, and a new seniors facility is a vital link in the continuity of care. The contract with Trellis was entered into with the previous government, and I implore you to cancel the contract, pay whatever penalty might be required, and get on with building a publicly funded facility.

Support for this is undeniable in our community.

The Sechelt Band currently has a huge tract of land cleared next to Sechelt Hospital, which would be an ideal place for a seniors care facility. This location would present an opportunity to engage our thriving Sechelt Indian Band and Government District and could also provide needed training spaces for the health care aide course offered at the Capilano University campus (a five-minute walk from the hospital), and gerontology and psychogeriatric physician training through UBC. It would be easier for doctors (many of whom visit the hospital daily) to pop over and see their patients in the facility, and much easier and cheaper to transport residents to the hospital ER if their condition cannot be managed at the seniors facility (which happens quite often).

Also, a tunnel could be built connecting the hospital to the new facility, allowing the seniors home to share expensive and vital infrastructure such as kitchen, laundry, security and engineering services, lowering operating costs for the new facility.

I respectfully ask you to keep the NDP’s promise to support publicly funded health care and build the facility soon. The people of the Sunshine Coast deserve no less.

Michele Libling, Sechelt