Here’s a quick trick to get rid of lineups
Re: “Don’t trust reports on clinic wait times,” letter, Feb. 24.
The letter notes clinic wait times only cover “patients who get in the door, not how many patients were turned away as the clinic was either at capacity or there no doctor was available.”
It describes how at the Westshore UPCC, people start lining up before 6 a.m., and if you are not in line by 6 or 7 a.m., you won’t be seen.
The writer describes standing in line in cold weather for hours with pneumonia — repeatedly.
She suggests Health Minister Adrian Dix join the lineups to observe the elderly, young mothers with newborns and others who often cannot receive timely care and are turned away and not seen on a daily basis.
Luckily, Dix has already solved this problem.
Starting March 4, the Westshore UPCC will dispense with lineups. The only way to get in will be arranging an appointment over the phone. If you can get through. And there’s capacity.
Health care is like a radio contest.
See? No lineups!
Mark Roseman
Victoria
https://www.timescol...et-math-8361874
We’ll be OK with our grandkids nearby
Saturday’s Times Colonist had an interesting juxtaposition of articles.
A front-page news story spoke of the tragic death of a young woman in Nanaimo, because of a lack of accessibility to decent health care.
And the letters page doubled down on the health-care crisis in Victoria, with one writer lamenting the long lines at health clinics with “elderly people who can barely stand … looking for medical care that is not available.”
Then I read that Victoria city council approved a 23-storey rental tower, where “the average size of a unit is 389 square feet.” Coun. Krista Loughton spoke “of the importance of creating things so that people’s children and grandchildren can support parents in their older age, that for me, trumps everything.”
At first, I thought her comment trumped common sense. Why plan for thousands of more people to come to Victoria, when thousands are already here and desperate for doctors?
But then again, who needs doctors when our grandchildren will be waiting in their 389-square-foot apartments, ready to take care of us.
Ira Shorr
Victoria
Edited by Victoria Watcher, 27 February 2024 - 05:17 AM.