University has a low risk of the coronavirus
Re: “Universities need to be in the lead on COVID,” editorial, Oct. 29.
The University of Victoria remains one of the safest, low-risk communities on the island. With a university population of 27,900, while there have been a small number of individual cases, there has not been a single transmission of COVID-19 anywhere on campus this semester.
This is due to the extremely high vaccination rate among our students, faculty and staff and the many layers of additional protection enforced on campus including the self-declaration of vaccine status, mandatory mask mandate and on-site asymptomatic testing clinic.
As of Oct. 29, 96 per cent of employees and 94 per cent of students have completed their vaccine declaration and 98.2 per cent of employees and 98.5 per cent of students report full or partial vaccination.
Declarations are subject to periodic audits. For the small percentage who are not fully vaccinated or prefer to not disclose, weekly asymptomatic testing is mandatory. Compliance with testing is audited as well.
Consequences for failure to comply may include discipline or loss of access to UVic services or premises.
We regularly provide feedback and advice to the provincial health officer and government on the impact of health orders, policies and procedures for our sector.
Based on scientific evidence and data, we advocate for change where needed.
Our numbers and analysis support our belief that UVic will continue to remain a low-risk environment into the new year as the COVID-19 booster program is rolled out.
Susan Lewis and Kane Kilbey
UVic COVID-19 Transition Team co-chairs
Charities should demand full vaccinations
With more and more municipalities and other organizations such as the B.C. 2022 Winter Games coming on board with full vaccination requirements for both that of their employees and their volunteers, I’m surprised that more local charities haven’t stepped up to the plate.
My wife and I both volunteer with a couple of charitable organizations in Victoria. Neither one of us has been asked if we are fully vaccinated, nor have we been asked to provide proof that we are.
Given that the majority of volunteers are typically seniors, it seems like a no-brainer that charities should ensure that all volunteers, no matter what sector they are in, are fully vaccinated or in lieu of that have a medical exemption.
To not do so only seems to fly in the face of everything we have had to endure for the past 18 months.
Why would a charity want to potentially expose their valued volunteers to this dreaded virus and risk the possibility of having to be shut down until the exposure threat has gone?
Let’s hope that collectively in the not-too-distant future that all charities adopt similar policies instead of the current patchwork voluntary system that’s currently in place.
Al Deacon
Victoria
Words from one of the forgotten 900,000
It is with great interest that I am following the commentaries on our broken health-care system. While we are all supportive of our premier and his successful cancer treatment, he should not be advising us to see a doctor if we need medical help.
I am one of the 900,000 B.C. residents without a doctor. At 78 years of age I need access to a regular doctor. Make no doubt about it, our health care system is in crisis, and is getting progressively worse.
Gwyn Morgan highlighted the extent of this very well in his recent column. He used facts gathered from extensive research in explaining the dire extent of this medical crisis. I applaud him in enlightening us to the extent he did.
To be realistic, we already have a two-tiered medical system: One for those fortunate enough to have a doctor, and the broken system that the 900,000 are caught up in. I have written to my MLA and Health Minister Adrian Dix asking for advice on this matter, unfortunately I have not had the courtesy of any response.
Ron Frolek
Victoria
Another medical issue: Horgan’s tin ear
My sympathy for Premier John Horgan’s health emergency is tempered somewhat by supreme confidence that he is in the best of hands and being treated in a timely fashion — unlike the hundreds of thousands of citizens who have no access to a family doctor or who, if they do, often face daunting waits to see specialists or have surgical procedures that would ease their pain and suffering.
My very best wishes to the medical team responsible for the premier’s ongoing care. Perhaps they could fix his tin ear while they’re at it.
Barbara Abercrombie
Victoria
Walk-in clinics? Good luck finding one to take you
Premier John Horgan is one of the minority who has a doctor, and can have surgery scheduled quickly. Thank goodness, as he has a greater chance of a full recovery.
He should put himself in the shoes of most B.C. residents, who have lost the family doctor from retirements or fatigue, or as our doctor, who suddenly passed from cancer and no one would take his patients.
It took my husband and me two years on waiting lists to find a practice that would interview us and finally accept us as patients. We are lucky.
But the doctor is usually booking two weeks out, so when I had a medical issue it was suggested I attend a clinic. Has Horgan had that experience? I doubt it.
I phoned every clinic from Duncan to Victoria, no appointments were taken over the phone, so I arrived an hour before the clinic in my area opened on a Saturday, to find I was number three in the line.
Ten minutes after the posted opening hours, the door creaks open and the admitting person comes outside to take my phone number so the doctor could call me.
What? I explained that he needed to see me in person, this wasn’t a phone call kind of appointment. I was told they were completely booked for the day. Again, what?
I’m third in line and was told no appointments would be given over the phone.
I drove into Victoria and went to another half-dozen clinics, I just had to drive in the parking lot to see the signs out at every one that said they were at capacity for the day.
Come on — this has been a huge problem for years, fix it.
Chris Hardie
Mill Bay
We have no choice but to wait for health care
How rich for Premier John Horgan to urge people with health concerns to see a doctor.
As as a structurally vulnerable adult living homeless at the side of the road in View Royal, I have been trying to see the doctor for help with my mental-wellness issues down at Cool Aid.
This has not gone well. There is a pandemic going on and the staff down there are extremely busy trying to help the most marginalized members of Victoria society.
They are tired.
For Horgan to suggest that those of us out here who have health concerns not to wait is derisible. Being patient is all we are doing.
We are dying out here, John. Please care.
John Paul O’Carroll
Homeless in my hometown
Medical mythology from our premier
Re: “Horgan to undergo neck-biopsy surgery,” Oct 29.
I would like to preface my remarks by sincerely wishing the premier a good outcome with his biopsy.
What actually caught my attention in the article was Premier John Horgan’s statement: “For those of you out there who have concerns about this or that, don’t wait, see a doctor.” He didn’t seem to think through that his advice is pretty well impossible for an unconscionably large number of British Columbians.
One need go no further than the Comment page of the same day to confirm the problem of doctor shortages in B.C. This is not news. It is an ongoing result of the inaction of the governments of Horgan and his predecessors.
Later in the article, the premier tries to shift the blame to the feds for not providing additional health-care funding. In the meantime, nothing else seems to have come to the premier’s mind.
From everything I have read, the much-touted, by the provincial government, Urgent and Primary Care Centres have resulted in a less-than-stellar outcome.
My wife and I thank our lucky stars that we do have access to very wonderful and competent GPs.
Terry McGinty
Victoria
More doctors in Canada, so what is the problem?
There is a lot of misery around the doctor shortage and plenty of blame in all directions.
However, has anyone attempted a serious study of what is really going on? The results of which might result in efficiencies and, possibly, a revamp of the entire medical delivery system.
I ask, because I found a chart on the World Bank Organization on the number of physicians per 1,000 people in Canada from the years 1961 to 2017.
The data: in 1961, 1.1 per 1,000 people; in 2017, 2.61 per 1,000 people. This requires serious analysis rather than mindless finger-pointing.
Deborah Crawford
Saanich
Clinics, online services not offering help
My doctor retired last summer. Our family of six does not have a family doctor. We are using Telus Health and paying for Maple.
I had a very bad reaction to a medication and needed to go back to my old medication urgently. I had only been on this new medication for three days and there were zero refills for the old medication. It was changed online by a doctor (somewhere in Canada) for a refill but I had a terrible reaction.
I could not get on to Maple as the doctor was overwhelmed. I waited 40 minutes and was cut off.
I then tried Telus. I could only get an appointment two weeks later. I went to three walk-in-clinics and they said come back a week later, or in a couple of days.
I am not a shrinking violet and am an advocate for my own health. My lovely pharmacist gave me an emergency prescription for the medication I needed.
A close friend who works as a nurse in the ER said so many people are now having to resort to the ER to renew prescriptions for medications, as with Telus Health it is now hard to get an appointment, walk-in clinics are over-booked, and many people don’t have a family doctor.
Things are going from bad to worse. We are not getting any younger, and luckily we can always move back to Europe where the health care is excellent.
Nancy Stewart
Saanichton
Why bother with a mask if you lower it to talk?
After watching a few NHL games, I see that the coaches standing behind the players bench are wearing masks.
But whenever the coach leans over to talk to a player or a huddle by the bench during a time out, the coach lowers his mask to speak.
This is not a one-time thing, I have seen it happen frequently. Why wear a mask?
William Jesse
Victoria
SEND US YOUR LETTERS
• Email: letters@timescolonist.com
• Mail: Letters to the editor, Times Colonist, 201-655 Tyee Rd., Victoria, B.C. V9A 6X5
• Submissions should be no more than 250 words; subject to editing for length and clarity. Provide your contact information; it will not be published. Avoid sending your letter as an email attachment.
