LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
- January 27, 2009
The Editor;
I understand many Princeton residents are concerned about the future of their hospital. Let me assure you the Ministry of Health Services is working diligently to ensure the community has the health care services it needs. We have a solid partnership at work involving local physicians, the community, Interior Health and Health Match BC.
Family physician recruitment and retention is a challenge across BC and across Canada, particularly in rural communities. Physicians are interested in balancing their work and home lives, and when you combine emergency department shifts with running a family practice, burn-out quickly results if there aren't enough physicians to share the workload. As a result we are dedicating time and resources to attract physicians to the community; they are the key to delivering emergency department coverage at Princeton General Hospital.
Mayor Randy McLean, his council and the Chamber of Commerce are to be commended for their efforts in welcoming new physicians to the community with the use of a car, gift baskets and gift certificates to local businesses. The committee has also generously provided the furnishings for housing that's available for locum physicians who are in the community on short term contracts.
Interior Health has made Princeton a high priority advertising extensively in physician journals, through websites and at career fairs, spending about $15,000 last year alone. The Ministry of Health Services has jointly funded this effort. Interior Health has also engaged a professional search firm and is offering paid recruitment visits as well as financial assistance to relocate.
Permanent physicians wishing to settle in Princeton no longer need to set up their own office and find staff - they can simply lease space at the Cascade Medical Clinic Physicians' office which Interior Health successfully relocated to the hospital last March.
Interior Health also provides locums with housing, rent-free, while continuing to work with the rural practice programs office of the Ministry of Health Services on locum recruitment.
The South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation and Princeton council partnered with Interior Health to provide training for eight BC Ambulance Service emergency medical responders to become primary care paramedics. With their enhanced skills these paramedics, in some cases, will be able to transport patients to Penticton Regional Hospital without an accompanying doctor or nurse. This means more health care professionals on site at Princeton Hospital.
We'll continue this collaborative approach in our efforts to maintain Princeton General Hospital as a viable, sustainable community resource; we understand how important the hospital is to the residents of Princeton.
- George Abbott
Minister of Health Services
To The Editor;
Following the President Obama inauguration, we were at the President G. W. Bush Texas ranch looking directly into the eyes of one of their riding horses and asked it the pre-eminent question, "What will President Bush's 8-year term legacy be in history?"
The horse grimaced, never so much as gave a neigh, but flubbed it's soft brown nose, showed it's teeth and said nothing. However, their actions speak louder than words. It was well known that the President G. W. Bush horses do not move a muscle, or budge unless they are properly fitted with blinkers because they are so embarrassed who their riders are.
Now, you draw your own conclusions. Horses are renowned for their 'horse sense' unlike many humans.
Regards,
Joe Schwarz, Princeton
