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Letters March 4: Bouquets and brickbats on B.C.'s health care; keep Bowker Creek lands green

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Paramedics transport a patient to Royal Jubilee Hospital. Letter-writers are sharing both positive and negative experiences of B.C.’s health-care system. TIMES COLONIST

Province fails to act on primary care

Your editorial of Feb. 24 and article from Cindy Harnett confirm a direct correlation between the budget and lack of access to family health care. Several physicians have also contributed similar perspectives. So let’s be honest; the new provincial budget will do little to resolve the problem.

First, although there will be increased funding for training of nurses, there was no mention of specific efforts to increase the number of family doctors. This can be done in three ways.

First, increase enrolment at our medical schools. Why the silence of our local MLAs in support of additional spaces at UVic?

Second, no mention of funding in support of short-term programs to speed up orientation and certification of some of the reported 800 or so foreign-trained doctors currently not eligible to practise in B.C.

Third, the budget made no direct commitment to provide the extra funding to increase fees for family practice, and simply leaves it to negotiation with doctors. The medical profession, particularly specialists, stonewall any reforms as it doggedly insists on equal raises for all doctors. Surely the government can simply increase the $30 fee to $50 or more, plus allowance for office costs.

The province can extol virtues of their budget funding for new neighbourhood clinics to add to those recently opened here; James Bay, Sooke, Fernwood etc. While necessary, they are hardly sufficient, as they apparently only have capacity to serve about 1,500 patients, leaving 40,000 still with no doctor. We must significantly increase the supply of clinics, not perpetuate policies that result in closures of other physicians’ offices.

James D. Anderson
Saanich

In praise of B.C.’s health care

I write to praise B.C.’s world-class hospital system, from the provincial Health Ministry through Island Health and the hospitals, and in particular the Royal Jubilee Hospital. The care and attention I received was at the highest level.

I could not offer any way that the service could be improved. Doctors, nurses and assistants all giving caring, encouraging, informative care at all times of the day and night. Thanks to Carly, Kate, Cass, Emma and Heather and others in 516 North for making my stay enjoyable.

And hey … look at the menu. What a wide selection of meals! As great as any restaurant or hotel.

And room service included.

We are blessed with the finest system the world has to offer.

Gerry Houlden
Victoria

Good care is not a guarantee

Re: “When we need quick, high-level care, we can get it,” Feb. 25.

Is our medical system working well? It is obvious that the 20-30% of Victoria residents who lack family doctors (I am one) face major hurdles in accessing care. Vern Paetkau’s commentary of Feb. 25 suggests things work better if a major injury is involved. I had the same injury as Vern; mine occurred in late August. Like Vern, I was taken to the Victoria General Hospital emergency room. From there, our stories diverge.

I spent hours sitting and waiting. I got an X-ray. After several more hours a resident doctor, who never physically examined my injury, said that the X-ray showed no broken bones and he would return. After several more hours, I asked a nurse if I was going to see him again. The nurse came back and said I should go home. I was given no diagnosis, instructions, or explanation; just a pair of crutches. When I attempted to depart the hospital, my knee buckled and I fell to the floor. I made it home, where I fell again.

The next morning, I called a friend/doctor in the U.S. He diagnosed a quad tendon rupture based on my answers to a few questions about symptoms. Appalled by Victoria General’s inaction, he instructed me to immediately return to another emergency room and tell them his diagnosis.

This time, I went to Royal Jubilee where another long wait ended with a confirmation of the diagnosis by a resident. He gave me a full-leg brace, which was crucial. I waited several hours to see an osteopathic surgeon, but then was told he would just phone later. I got surgery five days later. In most other developed countries, these surgeries are done within 48 hours of the accident because the ruptured tendon shortens quickly.

These are some of the many signs of a system that is in need of more funding and many more personnel. The fact that some receive prompt treatment is not a reason for inaction.

Peter Abrams
Victoria

Quick care for some, but not all

Re: “When we need quick, high-level care, we can get it,” Feb. 25.

I was amused to read this in the TC. Anyone who needs urgent care gets treated as quickly as possible when arriving by ambulance at emergency. However that is a one time occurrence which in no way is representative of care for thousands of residents of the Island who have no doctor, Even simple renewal of prescriptions can be a major time consuming affair lining up at clinics for hours with no guarantee of seeing a doctor.

I suspect the writer would still be waiting if he had had a bad sprain and went to a clinic for pain pills.

The GP is the key service provider who knows the history and needs of his patients and can refer them to specialists as needed. Seeing a doctor at a clinic is a long shot since there is a shortage of GPs and clinics are closing. Many new doctors elect to be specialists, which are remunerated at a higher level or hospitalists to avoid paperwork and bureaucracy. It is common knowledge that GPs get just over $30 per visit but we have no idea how much a specialist gets for equivalent work. GPs should get the same remuneration since they are the key interface with patients.

Chris Sheldon
Victoria

Codes of conduct could apply to all

I thought the Langford code-of-conduct letter brought up a fantastic point that should be followed in all forms of government. “Great leaders listen to their people and adapt to the environment and situation around them. Those who can’t or won’t need to move on.” I wonder if you could forward that thought to Mr. Trudeau?

Tim Murphy
Esquimalt

Bowker Creek green space a vital resource

The fact that the Victoria Hospice considers the green space at Bowker Creek to be the “perfect” location to build on is extremely disturbing, because it indicates that the board has no understanding of the importance of untouched natural spaces for human health.

Nature deficit disorder is a very real disease. Humans need connection to “wildness” in order to feel whole. However well-intentioned the Hospice Society’s plans are for the property, they will result in another manufactured environment, thereby destroying natural green space that is essential for human health and sense of well-being.

I have the highest respect for the Hospice Society. My mother died in their compassionate and loving care at the age of 97. Perhaps I will also require their professional care one day, and if so I would like to know that the facility is not on land that could have contributed to the health of the living.

Mike Phillips
Victoria

School land sale must not go ahead

On March 14, the Greater Victoria School Board will vote to sell precious community land at Lansdowne Middle School’s south campus. Once sold, this natural public space is lost forever.

The board has received hundreds of submissions expressing concern. At Feb. 23’s special board meeting, trustees received an overwhelming message to not sell this land. Presenters spoke passionately of the land’s value: for school space in this densifying region; as green space for students and surrounding neighbourhoods in a green-space deficit; as home to Bowker Creek and a floodplain critical to reducing downstream flooding; for an outdoor classroom; and as an integral part of this watershed needing protection in a climate emergency.

Will the school board listen? To date it has not, failing to consult per the Ministry of Education’s land disposal policies. Neither the public nor stakeholders were consulted, or notified, prior to the sales agreement announcement on Oct. 14, 2021; since, the public has only been allowed to submit questions and comments — with no response, no opportunity for dialogue and no discussions of alternatives.

I believe this undemocratic process, combined with the controversial suspension of two trustees, invalidates the board’s authority to sell this land.

The Songhees Nation has called for the trustees’ resignation, the teachers’ association has voted “no confidence” in the board (and opposes the sale), and trustees Whiteaker and Duncan and other community leaders question the legislative authority used to suspend these elected trustees. The board must step back from this harmful, irrevocable sale.

Isabel Cordua-von Specht
Victoria

Canada must cut our losses and ditch the TMX pipeline now

Your Feb. 27 story about spiralling taxpayer costs and eco-risks of our hideously poisonous Trans-Mountain Pipeline prove this dangerous megaproject should have been stopped before Ottawa bought us the TMX — without a public referendum.

Federal and provincial environmental permits mandating impact studies of TMX’s inevitable, not hypothetical, oil “spills” are laughable. It will be too late to stop such a release’s heinous ecological destruction. Tanker toxins will kill our West Coast’s fragile environment forever.

There is no such critter as a “cleanup,” an oil-industry buzzword assuring us everything will be fine. It sure won’t.

We are shouldering all these huge-cost risks — along with tree and habitat loss on the TMX’s path — so oil shipped to Asia can produce ever more insane climate change.

I beg our various government levels to cut our losses, kill the TMX, and invest in viable green energy now before this greasy genie escapes its oil drum upon completion.

Peter W. Rusland
North Cowichan

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