The Week: VIHA and province disrespect our hospital board, medical staff and the public

The Week: VIHA and province disrespect our hospital board, medical staff and the public

When fog settles in, our vision is limited  |  George Le Masurier photo

The Week: VIHA and province disrespect our hospital board, medical staff and the public

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As a retired journalist who has seen the health care system from up close on both sides of the Canada-US border, I can tell you that we are fortunate to live here.

It’s true we don’t have a Mayo Clinic or a John Hopkins University, and there aren’t storefronts offering MRIs on every street corner (only a slight exaggeration). But we have our fair share of brilliant and competent people providing us with health care, from brain surgeons right through to admitting clerks.

I have retired friends in the Puget Sound who pay $1,000 per month for comparable health insurance that used to cost BC residents just $75 a month, and is now free. For their inflated cost, my American friends get little more than better access to technology and procedures, although that can be critical in certain situations.

I say this to put my next sentence in context.

Many of those who work in the healthcare field on Vancouver Island — the doctors, nurses, laboratory workers, kitchen workers in hospitals, receptionists and more — believe that the Vancouver Island Health Authority is poorly managed. Employee surveys at Nanaimo General and the two North Island Hospitals in 2017/2018 bear this out.

And sadly, with a few exceptions, our elected officials and our mainstream Island media have let them off the hook.

VIHA, or Island Health if you prefer, is a secretive organization whose top decision-makers appear out of touch with the people they are supposed to serve. It’s an organization that could not properly plan and build new hospitals in Campbell River and the Comox Valley; planning flaws that after two years  still have not been fully corrected.

How else can you describe the VIHA executives that have imposed reductions of pathology services north of the Malahat, especially on the North Island? Or, how they have dealt with the public that has explained the harm that these changes have made to patient care? We have lost critical onsite clinical pathologists’ services in Campbell River, and soon, if VIHA gets its way, in the Comox Valley, too.

The centralization of clinical pathology interpretation and diagnosis in Victoria is a disservice to north Islanders. Next on the block might be medical imaging. After that, who knows?

 

DECISIONS MADE IN ISOLATION

VIHA hatched this plan to shut down certain laboratory services at our hospitals without prior consultation with our doctors, our lab staff or even our elected officials at the Comox Strathcona Regional Hospital District. Consulting the public, of course, would never cross their minds.

North Island medical professionals, such as Dr. Aref Tabarsi, a Campbell River general pathologist, learned of this centralization plan through an out-of-the-blue phone call. “Don’t do this work any more, send it to doctors in Victoria.”

This change has created potential life-threatening situations and, at the very least, has added unnecessary stress to people already suffering through longer wait times, increased uncertainty and delays in treatment. North Island doctors are concerned that people will die as a direct result of not having clinical pathologists’ services onsite in the Valley and Campbell River.

And here’s another problem: our elected hospital board directors have no say at all about operations at our hospitals. The extent of their job, it appears, is to ask taxpayers to pony up 40 percent of the capital costs for projects proposed by VIHA.

To their credit, hospital board directors wrote a letter to the VIHA board chair and BC Health Minister Adrian Dix asking them to restore the lab services VIHA has grabbed for Victoria. That would, in turn, free up funds for hiring a needed third general pathologist for the Campbell River Hospital.

That was last spring. To date there has been no response to their letter from Health Minister Dix and directors who asked to meet with him at the UBCM Convention were rebuffed. VIHA did respond with a presentation notable for its flawed graphs, inaccurate information and a confusing explanation that did not address the board’s concerns.

Now, the board is struggling with how to respond to this treatment and whether they even can advocate for the citizens of the North Island. It’s a problem foisted upon them by VIHA, which has neglected public sentiment and deflected its accountability.

 

HOSPITAL BOARD MUST ADVOCATE

The public has naturally turned to the one and only group of regionally accountable individuals available, the regional hospital board.

It was the hospital board that committed North Island taxpayers to pay for 40 percent of what we all assumed were two complete hospitals. We expected they would come with fully-functioning laboratories suitable for community hospitals, which we already had at the old Campbell River Hospital and at St. Joseph’s.

Now we have hospitals with diminished laboratory services, and who knows what further reductions are yet to come. This is not what we were promised when our hospital board committed us to a $267 million debt.

How is it possible that our elected local officials who sit on the Comox Strathcona Hospital Board are reduced to nothing more than a conduit through which VIHA extracts capital funding from local taxpayers with the blessing of a provincial government that thinks it cannot be held to account?

We elected the hospital board directors. It’s shameful that the province takes our money and treats them with such disrespect.

Can the board accept this role, standing idly by rather than rising up to advocate for North Island patients? Isn’t it right that, at the very least, they demand to have the services we paid expected? And that they continue to demand it until full hospital services are restored?

Their advocacy is important and can be powerful. And it’s their obligation to us, the constituents who are paying the bill.

 

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The Week: March for our planet today, but who will take the big, bold steps we need?

The Week: March for our planet today, but who will take the big, bold steps we need?

Only big, bold and probably unpopular actions are needed now to slow down climate change  |  George Le Masurier photo

The Week: March for our planet today, but who will take the big, bold steps we need?

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This week we’re feeling curious about many things, but especially this: After today’s climate march will a genuine sense of emergency finally hit home throughout the Comox Valley?

The Comox Valley Youth Environmental Action group has called for another climate strike today. It starts from Simms Park in Courtenay at 1 pm.

Perhaps another 3,000 people or more will march through Courtenay’s streets to show growing support for actions by individuals and governments to lessen or delay the disastrous effects of climate change.

Climate activist and Courtenay CouncillorWill Cole-Hamilton reminded us last week of the important role that public demonstrations play. They give us a sense of well-being; that we’re doing something positive to fight back unthinkable horrors.

And seeing growing numbers of committed people atted public demonstrations gives social license to businesses and governments to take bolder actions to save our planet.

And here comes the ‘but.’

But so far we haven’t seen any bold actions by leaders locally, provincially or nationally.

Yes, we have taken small steps. We’ve banned single-use plastic bags. We’re in the process of adding charging stations for electric vehicles. We’ve banned the extraction and bottling of groundwater or municipal water for commercial purposes. On a national level, Canada did sign the Paris Accord.

Cities and towns all over the world are taking small steps like these, and many other nations made pledges in Paris. Yet, carbon dioxide emissions have risen by an average of 1.5 percent per year for the past 10 years. We coughed up 55 gigatonnes last year. The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has reached 407.8 parts per million.

To put that into perspective, scientists say global carbon emissions must drop by 7.6 percent per year for the next 10 years, or the world faces catastrophic consequences.

Small steps won’t get us there.

If we continue taking small steps most of the Courtenay Flats including Puntledge Road, the Lewis Centre, the gas station on Dyke Road and the K’omoks First Nation band hall will be flooded. So will the Courtenay Airpark. Jane Place in Comox will be underwater. The little bit of high ground near the tip of Goose Spit will become an island. The low lying farm land below CFB Comox that the Queen’s Ditch flows through will flood and begin the process of reverting to the saltwater bay it once was.

Think about the sewage pump station on the banks of the Courtenay River, and the Kus-kus-sum site.

Sea level rise will continue, droughts will last longer, forest fires will increase … and on and on it goes.

We don’t have time for small steps. I know many people think that some new technology will emerge and save us. I hope they’re right.

But we need that silver bullet today. Not five years from now. That’s too late, if you believe the science, and you must or you wouldn’t be marching today. And, if you don’t and you’re not marching, then you’re making the mountain that much higher for the rest of us to climb.

It’s nice that our local governments have declared ‘climate emergencies.’ But what does that really mean beyond lip service?

Have any of our municipalities dumped their fossil-fuel burning fleet of vehicles and purchased all electric models? Have any of them taken away gas-powered leaf blowers, lawn mowers and grass trimmers from their public works staff? How many have installed solar panels on all of their municipal buildings?

The City of Courtenay and the Comox Valley Regional District have built a new office building on higher ground. That’s smart. But is it a LEED-certified building? No. Is it a net-zero energy building right now? No. Will it be complaint with the new BC Energy Step Code step building code when it goes into effect in 2032?

I know what you’re thinking. These changes take time. They cost money. People aren’t willing to pay the high taxes needed to change-out fleets of cars and hire more municipal staff to rake leaves. Builders aren’t constructing only net-zero energy buildings because people can’t afford them. These things are true.

But when our coastline starts disappearing and people lose their homes or can no longer get insurance or sell them because everybody is retreating as fast as they can to higher ground, then what?

I don’t know how we drop global emissions by 7.6 percent per year. We’ve never done it. In fact, we’re headed in the other direction even now.

But one thing is for sure: We need bold leaders willing to take bold actions — unpopular as they might be — or we’re in for natural disasters of a magnitude we clearly haven’t fathomed.

So march today. But take big steps, not small ones.

 

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Morrison Creek headwaters are unique on Vancouver Island

The Comox Valley Lands Trust is “this close” to conserving a small portion of the unique Morrison Creek headwaters, but has its sights on protecting the entire oasis of swamps, ponds and marshes. A conservation area the size of Stanley Park.

The Comox Valley has a wood stove problem

No wood stove would pass a basic vehicle emissions test, yet the Comox Valley allows them to burn day and night, for weeks and months, with almost no regulation, polluting our air and posing serious public health risks

BC ministry attempts to justify Sackville water license

Ministry officials explain and justify their Sackville Road groundwater extraction decision, saying no negative effects will result. But Merville residents question the ministry’s data and remain suspicious about negative effects on their wells

BREAKING: 3L development vote today

The Comox Valley Regional District Committee of the Whole will vote at 4 p.m. today (July 10) on whether to classify the 3L Developments proposal for a 740-house project at Stotan Falls as a minor amendment to the Regional Growth Strategy. CVRD staff have recommended the proposal be classified as a major amendment.

City bridge proposal would harm airpark, Kus-kus-sum

A proposed new bridge would kill the Courtenay Airpark, walkway, Hollyhock Marsh, undermine Kus-kus-sum and add another signal light on Comox Road. So why is the City of Courtenay promoting it? Even mayoralty candidates aren’t sure

The Week: Where did the Attorney General go; and, Trudeau’s middle ‘class’

The Week: Where did the Attorney General go; and, Trudeau’s middle ‘class’

Boys playing pool, circa late 1970s  |  George Le Masurier

The Week: Where did the Attorney General go; and, Trudeau’s middle ‘class’

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It appears that the BC Attorney General’s office may have changed its view of the Town of Comox’s desire to alter the Mack Laing Trust. How else to explain the last eight months of dead silence?

It’s been so long ago you may not remember that the town wants to tear down Laing’s historic home, called Shakesides, and spend the life savings that he gifted to the people of Comox on something other than what the trust agreement allows.

But in early May, the Attorney General surprised both the town and the Mack Laing Heritage Society by announcing a delay that they said could last about five months. The AG gave no reason for the delay. The town had hoped to go to trial during the court’s June sessions.

FURTHER READING: More about Hamilton Mack Laing and Shakesides

That five-month delay has now turned into eight months and counting. And the AG’s office still refuses to explain why or what it’s doing to bring the case to a resolution. Even town councillors have no idea what’s going on at the AG’s office.

Has the Attorney General reconsidered its support of the Town of Comox after taking the District of West Vancouver to court in July? The AG argued in that case that the municipality broke a similar agreement with two residents who had bequeathed their property.

Or, did the town’s failure to properly consult with the K’omoks First Nations set off alarms in the AG’s office?

Perhaps the Mack Laing Heritage Society’s comprehensive business plan that shows widespread community support for restoring Shakesides — more than two dozen individuals and construction companies have volunteered labor and materials — has caught the Attorney General’s attention.

Or maybe the AG’s office has finally realized how badly the town has handled Mack Laing’s generous gifts, especially the finances.

We can only hope one of these issues have given the Attorney General a crisis of conscience.

For nearly three years, a 5-2 majority of Comox councillors have been trying to ram their application through the BC Supreme Court. They spent the first two years, and three expensive Supreme Court hearings, attempting to block the Mack Laing Society from presenting evidence at trial.

Ex-mayor Paul Ives led this charge and current Mayor Russ Arnott has happily carried the torch. They have cost Comox taxpayers huge amounts of money trying to justify their actions.

Meanwhile, Shakesides sits in disrepair. But as Craig Freeman and the Merville Community Association have proved, it’s neither difficult nor expensive to preserve and rejuvenate a historic building, and give it a new life for public enjoyment.

The minority Liberal government announced a new cabinet post this week: Mona Fortier was appointed Minister of Middle-Class Prosperity and Associate Minister of Finance.

Does that term ‘middle-class’ bother anyone else? Don’t we really mean middle-income? Does Canada have a class system?

Giving middle income families the label of ‘middle-class’ suggests there is an upper class and a lower class.

I don’t know about you, but in my world, people who have higher incomes don’t necessarily warrant a ‘higher class’ status than anyone else. In some instances, I’d argue the opposite. Likewise, people who have had less financial success in their lives don’t warrant ‘lower class’ status.

I’m nitpicking, perhaps. But how we use language affects people and reveals a truth about how we see the world. Doesn’t assigning a ‘class’ to our income levels say something unfavorable about our sense of social justice and personal worth?

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The Week: bizarre backstory; great news on sewage planning

Good morning. We’re writing about the tragic backstory of a water valve, the state of happiness in Comox, new (and thankfully) long-term sewerage plans and the strength of women like Jody Wilson-Raybould speaking truth to power

The Stolen Church now repaying history with new life in Merville

The Stolen Church now repaying history with new life in Merville

The Stolen Church at the Merville Community Association  |  George Le Masurier photos

The Stolen Church now repaying history with new life in Merville

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Who says historic Comox Valley buildings from the early 1900s can’t be fully restored and recommissioned for future generations?

Not Craig Freeman.

The president of the Merville Community Association just points to the second relocation and recent restoration of St. Mary’s Church, which made its debut in September during the community’s 100-year celebration.

“There’s a lot of things you can do with an old building,” Freeman told Decafnation this week. “They get dilapidated, sure, but we can repair them. It’s no big deal.”

Freeman is one of the board members of the Merville Community Association who works in the construction industry and oversaw the move and renovation of the church and its companion building that once housed a Sunday school. Pete Birch is a recent board member who also helped on the church renovation.

The “Stolen Church” — so named because it was originally built in Tsolum in 1915 and moved to Merville in 1919 to serve WWI veterans residing in the soldier settlement there — has shed its worn down condition and its barn red colour.

Today, the church is painted a bright blue with a new metal roof, refinished original wood floors and original stained glass window all sitting on top of a sturdy concrete and foam block foundation. The interior has been double insulated and rewired.

Outside, local craftsman Bill Enns made a new custom solid cedar door with handmade old-style wrought iron hinges.

The Stolen Church sits on the community association’s three-acre property just north of the Merville Store. The property also hosts a playground, a site for a future community garden and, of course, the iconic Merville Hall, which itself has undergone a major renovation.

A solar grid on the hall’s new metal roof captures enough energy to power the church for a net positive energy consumption.

“I don’t know why people let these buildings go,” Freeman said.

He got involved with the community association 15 years ago because a musical group he plays with, Fiddlejam, had been using the Merville Hall for concerts and dances. He wanted to see the hall maintained and not lost to the community.

The main hall has been fixed up, too, with a bright yellow exterior paint job — courtesy of volunteers from local scout troops, musicians and painters in 2010 — its own metal roof, a solar power array installed on the roof and multiple interior improvements.

Freeman sees other historic buildings around the Valley that are worthy of saving and put back to public uses.

A couple of years ago, he wrote a letter to the editor offering the Town of Comox an alternative to their plan to tear down the heritage home of famous naturalist Mack Laing, called Shakesides.

“I just don’t understand why they don’t renovate that building so we (Merville Community Association) offered to do that and give it a home up here, if they wanted to move it,” Freeman said. “The Valley has lost too many historic buildings already.”

 

HISTORY OF STOLEN CHURCH

Grantham area farmers built the church in 1915 near where the Tsolum School stands today. For $200, the church served the Anglican community. But soon, in 1919, there was a greater need in the Merville area, where the Canadian government had offered land to WWI vets through the Soldier Settlement project.

So volunteers pulled the church on skids with a tractor up the gravel road. An unused army hut was later moved to the church site from the WWII Sandwick Camp and became a place to hold Sunday school classes.

The Anglican diocese finally gave up on the little church in 2003. It went through several ownerships until Alison and Brad Orr purchased it in 2013.

Not wanting the buildings to decay beyond saving, Freeman offered to move both to the Merville Hall site and restore them. The Orrs sold them for a dollar apiece in 2015.

The community association raised funds and acquired grants for the project. They hired Nickel Brothers to move them and, with the help of community volunteers, prepared foundations and made the move up the Island Highway into a nightime parade-like event.

 

WHAT IT COST

Although Freeman has the skills to have done most of the work himself and a few friends, the association contracted out the drwall, concrete entrance and electrical. He says they wanted to get it done in time for the Merville 100 Years Celebration in September, 2019.

It cost $15,000 to move each of the two buildings, and they spent another $10,000 or so on the foundations, electrical and drywall. Even including the new roof, Freeman estimates the whole project has cost less than $50,000.

This year, in preparation for the launch of the Dancing in Gumboots book and the 100 years eventr, Wonder Womem volunteers did landscaping with fruits trees and sunflowers; they removed rocks, pulled weeds and kept watering all summer long.

Freeman anticipates that rentals of the Stolen Church for weddings, yoga classes, meetings and other small functions will eventually make it a profitable venture.

The community association has a small membership that survives through its rental of the main hall, a small grant-in-aid for insurance from the Comox Valley Regional District, a summer farmer’s market and fundraising spearheaded by Freeman and consultant Dawn Ringrose.

But changes are coming.

Kymme Patrick’s TheatreWorks for the Performing Arts is in the process of moving her production and teaching school from Tin Town to the Merville Hall. The company provides theatre programs for youth and has been instrumental in using theatre as an educational tool with schools and organizations in the Comox Valley.

And they have fenced a large plot of their land for a future community garden. It already has water access and piles of skyrocket compost waiting for gardeners to spread and enhance the soil.

 

 

 

 

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Comox Valley climate activists join 1,700 discussion events worldwide

Comox Valley climate activists join 1,700 discussion events worldwide

Comox Valley citizens participated in 24 Hours of Realty, the worldwide climate action this week  |  Dan Vie photo

Comox Valley climate activists join 1,700 discussion events worldwide

By

While former U.S. Vice President kicked off a worldwide discussion about the climate crisis at Vanderbilt University yesterday, Gore-trained climate activist Will Cole-Hamilton provided a similar keynote presentation for close to 100 people at the Comox United Church Hall.

Cole-Hamilton spoke about global progress in developing solar and wind technologies to replace fossil fuels, how the City of Courtenay has addressed climate change and why growing public sentiment expressed in climate marches are so important.

And he brought the topic down to a personal level. Recalling a recent conversation with one of his young children, Cole-Hamilton had trouble keeping his own emotions in check.

Comox Valley Youth Environmental Action has scheduled another Climate Strike for 1 p.m. Nov. 29 at Courtenay’s Simms Park

When his young daughter announced she never planned to have children, Cole-Hamilton asked why. “Because it’s not fair to bring kids into a world that’s not safe,” she said.

Celia Laval, of the Comox Valley Unitarian Fellowship, a co-organizer of the event, which was one of 1,700 same-day presentations in 75 countries called 24 Hours of Reality: Climate Truth in Action, also acknowledged the seriousness of the issue.

“This is a heavy topic,” she said. “And I’m glad I don’t have to face it alone.”

After Cole-Hamilton’s presentation, participants broke into small groups to discuss the climate crisis and share the practical steps that individuals and neighbourhoods can take to reduce the human impact on climate change.

 

CLIMATE CRISIS PRESENTATION

Cole-Hamilton started his presentation showing an aerial photo of the Puntledge Road and highway bypass area of Courtenay during the 2014 flood, a rain event that climate scientists predict will become more frequent in the future.

And he showed an old photo of the formerly robust Comox Glacier. Experts now believe that all Vancouver Island glaciers will disappear within 20 years.

But Cole-Hamilton moved on to good news. Many nations have pledged to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 at the Paris Accord. China and India have generated half or more of their new energy from solar and wind. In the last five years, solar energy jobs have grown six times faster than the overall economy.

In Canada, Cole-Hamilton said, there are now more clean energy jobs than exist in Alberta’s tar sands oil patch.

Cole-Hamilton, who also serves as an elected Courtenay councillor, said he’s proud of how the city is addressing climate change. That includes new electric vehicle charging stations, a ban on single-use plastic bags and declaring a climate emergency.

He said the city’s revision of its Official Community Plan, which is underway, will consider climate change “every step of the way.” The city’s consultants say Courtenay will be the first Canadian city to put the climate crisis at the core of its planning.

 

WHY JOIN THE CLIMATE MARCH?

More than 3,000 people — nearly five percent of the Comox Valley population — joined 800,000 other Canadians on Sept. 27 in climate marches to demand that governments at all levels do more to reduce human impacts on climate change.

Cole-Hamiltion told the audience that such public displays of public sentiment are more important than people might realize.

When large numbers of people show their support, it gives local governments social license to take positive actions. He noted that all Comox Valley councils and the regional board all declared climate emergencies after the march.

And, he said strong showings are also seen by businesses and other institutions, and they give everyone the strength of conviction to talk about the climate crisis.

“If we continue to grow climate marches, we will change our community,” he said.

 

WHAT PEOPLE ARE DOING

At the end of the evening, people from the small group discussions talked about the practical actions they are taking to create issue awareness and reduce their carbon footprint.

Those actions ranged from creating more community gardens, to consuming less (Nov. 29 is Buy Nothing Day), supporting local farmers, pledge to have a zero waste Christmas and supporting such local organizations as Project Watershed and Lush Valley.

The list will be posted on the Facebook pages for Comox Valley Unitarian Fellowship and Comox Valley Nurses for Health Environment.

The Comox Valley Nurses for Health and the Environment also co-sponsored the event.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WHAT TO SAY TO YOUR CLIMATE DENIER FRIENDS

The website Skeptical Science has made a list of the 197 most common myths about global warming and climate change and how you, as a climate activist, can respond to each of them.

Get the list here … cue cards not available.

 

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Morrison Creek headwaters are unique on Vancouver Island

The Comox Valley Lands Trust is “this close” to conserving a small portion of the unique Morrison Creek headwaters, but has its sights on protecting the entire oasis of swamps, ponds and marshes. A conservation area the size of Stanley Park.

The Comox Valley has a wood stove problem

No wood stove would pass a basic vehicle emissions test, yet the Comox Valley allows them to burn day and night, for weeks and months, with almost no regulation, polluting our air and posing serious public health risks

BC ministry attempts to justify Sackville water license

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Petition put to BC Legislature: restore North Island pathology

Petition put to BC Legislature: restore North Island pathology

Photo Caption

Petition put to BC Legislature: restore North Island pathology

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Today North Island MLA Claire Trevena presented a petition signed by over 2,500 people to the BC Legislature that calls for the return of onsite clinical pathologists’ services to the Campbell River Hospital.

The petition, started by the Citizens for Quality Health Care, also asks the province to fund a third general pathologist at the Campbell River Hospital and to conduct an independent investigation into the apparent conflict of interest between the Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA) and the Vancouver Island Clinical Pathology Consulting Corporation.

READ MORE: Find our three-part series on North Island pathology services here

Campbell River and Comox Valley doctors and patients have opposed VIHA’s plan to centralize onsite clinical pathologists’ services including interpretation and diagnosis of blood, urine and other fluid samples in Victoria.

Sources have told Decafnation that in Campbell River, where VIHA has already implemented this plan, it has posed significant and sometimes life-threatening dangers to patients and makes the work of lab staff, family physicians and specialists at the local hospital frustrating and difficult.

Campbell River laboratory professionals used to work in concert with easy access to one another for advice. But since VIHA moved clinical pathologists’ services to Victoria, interactions between Campbell River lab technologists and assistants with pathologists at the Vancouver Island Clinical Pathology Consulting Corporation is “formal, remote, delayed and does not meet the needs of medical staff and patients in urgent situations,” the citizens health care group said in a press release this week.

“This delays consultations, decision-making and treatment and is a step backward, not forward in timely and professional patient care,” they said.

The citizens group said it hopes MLAs will take the petition and their concerns seriously and restore clinical pathology services to the Campbell River Hospital and ensure that Island Health provides funding for a third general pathologist in Campbell River.

“The clear message that we have received from the community is that the reduction of local services to North Island patients is not acceptable and we must continue to fight for our rights. What VIHA is doing is a violation of all the promises that were made when the new hospitals were built that there would be an increase and not a decrease in services,” they said.

Noting the VIHA motto — Excellent health and care for everyone, everywhere, every time — the citizens group asked the health authority to take a sober look at the needs of patients and the demands of the front line providers in the community.

“They are the ones who deliver that care, not specialists in Victoria or bureaucrats in a boardroom,” they said.

Citizens for Quality Health Care plans to hold a Town Hall meeting in late January in Campbell River to further inform the public.

Readers can contact the Citizens For Quality Health Care through Lois Jarvis in Campbell River at 250-287-3096, and through Barb Biley in the Comox Valley at 250-338-3149.

 

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