The Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA, or Island Health) board of directors will hold their March meeting in the Comox Valley.
It’s an opportunity for Comox Valley and Campbell River residents flummoxed by the myriad errors in planning the new hospitals to ask questions or make presentations to the directors and Island Health executives.
The board will meet from 1.30 p.m. to 3 p.m. on March 29 at the Crown Isle Resort ballroom located at 399 Clubhouse Drive, Courtenay.
With the Comox Valley Hospital still running over capacity — due in large part to the shortage of long-term care beds — citizens might ask when Island Health will re-issue the Request for Proposals to build “new or replacement” beds.
Island Health originally issued an RFP for 70 “new or replacement” beds in 2016, then abruptly withdrew it last summer after deciding to move the community’s four hospice beds to a facility not operated by a religious organization.
Citizens might also ask when Island Health will correct planning errors such as the location of landing pads for emergency transport helicopters, the lack of space for storing health records and other oversights detailed in a series of articles on Decafnation.
FURTHER READING: Online forms for questions and presentations to the Island Health board
The board will only consider questions submitted in advance using an online form available on the Island Health website.
But, curiously, the board won’t speak to those questions at the Courtenay meeting. They will answer them in written form to be distributed at the meeting and uploaded to the Island Health website.
Individuals or groups planning a presentation to the board must apply using an online form at least 14 days in advance of the meeting (a March 15 deadline).
The Island Health board includes two area directors: Anne Davis, program coordinator for the Comox Valley Transition Society; and, Claire Moglove, a retired lawyer and former Campbell River city council member.
FURTHER READING: The Decafnation series on the Comox Valley Hospital