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Healthcare inequity in central Island discussed at Parksville council

New Fair Care Alliance delivers presentation to council on hospital needs
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The Parksville Civic and Technology Centre located at 100 Jensen Ave East. (PQB News file photo)

Parksville council discussed the issue of healthcare inequity in central Vancouver Island, after a presentation by the Fair Care Alliance that laid out the disparities in care received north and south of the Malahat.

Healthcare advocate Donna Hais said the Fair Care Alliance’s vision is for the 62-year-old Nanaimo Regional General Hospital (NRGH) to be expanded into a comprehensive tertiary hospital with an integrated approach to care and wellness.

“This conversation, if you weren’t scared when you entered the room, you will be a little more scared when you leave today,” she said during council’s June 3 meeting. “And realize that we really feel that the 460,000 people who live north of the Malahat need to have a voice.”

Hais said there are just 346 hospital beds for 460,000 residents north of the Malahat, while there are more than 800 beds for the 445,000 people to the south, despite the central Island’s aging population.

“Our patients are more acute, they’re more sick than the patients that you see going to south Island,” she added. NRGH has only two cardiologists, while the two tertiary hospitals in the south Island have 22, Hais said.

NRGH is already well over capacity, she said, and regularly treats more than 425 patients with its 346 beds, while managing the Island’s busiest emergency room.

Hais listed off 18 health services missing or incomplete at NRGH: pediatric psychiatry, critical care HAU, general internal medicine, cardiology, gastroenterology, oncology, infectious disease, hematology, palliative care, endocrinology, neurology, general pediatrics, geriatrics, wound care, vascular surgery, interventional radiology, stroke care and trauma.

“These are the programs that we do not have out of our tertiary centre, even though we are a designated tertiary hospital,” she said.

READ MORE: Doctors say patients on the Island dying of preventable heart attack complications

The Fair Care Alliance has launched a campaign with a petition, billboard ads, public rallies and on social media, Hais said.

“Today we’re here to ask for your council’s support. We’re asking you to engage your community,” Hais said, and added the plan is for every community north of the Malahat to receive a presentation.

Coun. Joel Grenz said it’s “a shame” to see healthcare, so highly valued by Canadians, facing these challenges.

“It’s a shame to me that we have to run ad campaigns to try to move the dial on this,” he said. “Really it’s a huge issue. At the local level we hear all the time around the need for primary care in our region, but obviously tertiary care as well.”

Grenz asked Hais what the biggest barriers are to improving the standard of healthcare in central Vancouver Island.

“This is only my opinion,” Hais said. “We specifically right now have a provincial government who specifically does not want to direct funds to central Vancouver Island. Their attitude is very government-centric. Government is based out of Victoria and that should be good enough for the people who live on Vancouver Island to get healthcare.”

More information about the Fair Care Alliance and its campaign is available online at weneedhealthcare.ca.



Kevin Forsyth

About the Author: Kevin Forsyth

As a lifelong learner, I enjoy experiencing new cultures and traveled around the world before making Vancouver Island my home.
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