Save Our Hospital Coalition has released a discussion paper in order to get feedback from the community, politicians and professionals about the state of local healthcare and what the long term solutions should be put in place for “Developing an Improved and Sustainable Health Care Model for Princeton, B.C.“.
The paper can be downloaded and distributed freely. Feedback is welcomed. The Save Our Hospital Coalition board of directors would like to thank Ed Staples for his time and dedication to this project. SOHC sees this as the natural evolution to our struggle for long-term sustainable health care in Princeton.
http://sohc.ca/files/sohcdiscussionpaper.pdf
This past week Save Our Hospital Coalition conducted interviews with the two candidates for mayor, Rosemary Doughty and Frank Armitage, and the two candidates for councillor, Doug Pateman and Rob Rubis. Each candidate was asked nine questions regarding health care issues in our community. Here are the results of those interviews.
Question 1: If you become mayor/councillor, where would you place the health care issue on your list of priorities for Princeton?
Rosemary Doughty (RD): Health care would be my first priority. When I go door to door it is the only thing that people talk about. Whatever the community wants is what I would stand for.
My model of a good mayor is Walter Despot who worked hard for Keremeos’ healthcare. I would be involved in the issues. When I went to the ER closure demonstrations, I did not see the Mayor or Council there. I would like to see Council start a monthly open information session where they share with Princeton residents what they are doing and planning to do. If I become mayor, I would like to give more information and share more information. Leadership and being pro-active are part of my platform. Continue reading
It has been recognized on both government and local levels that there is a unique problem with the medical care in Princeton. We apparently have enough doctors to cover the local and area populace; however, there are not enough physicians to man the Hospital Emergency Room. For years, the government has been running in circles, hiring “recruitment” officers, etc. and no solutions have been forthcoming. Now the area is in the midst of unacceptable 4-night-a-week closures in the Emergency Room. The government would like to “centralize” the health care in British Columbia, but that has its obvious flaws in emergency situations.
To solve this unique problem, the government must create a “unique” job position. Our government has a long history of creating new job positions, so this should not be difficult. As I understand it, doctors work on a fee for service basis. If they don’t have enough patients, they won’t make enough money to warrant their practice. The current Princeton doctors all have sufficient numbers of patients. To solve our “unique” problem, the government must create a salaried Emergency Room Doctor position. Continue reading