Dear Editor,
Healthcare in Princeton has experienced some very positive changes in the past year. It’s exciting to have three new physicians working with our existing health care team at the Cascade Clinic. As we all know, any major change can be difficult and we’ve had our share of growing pains. I want to share what we are doing at the clinic and through the Princeton Health Care Steering Committee to address these issues.
Cascade Clinic is in the process of hiring additional administrative staff to assist with the growth in tasks that came from the merging of three physician clinics. Posting, interviewing and hiring new employees takes time, so we’ve been providing some support from Penticton to help the admin team at the clinic while we work to hire new staff. You should be seeing at least one new face at the clinic in the next few weeks. This will allow us to answer phones and book patients into appointments in a timelier manner. In the meantime, we ask for your patience as our staff are working hard to respond to the needs of patients and physicians.
Longer wait times for doctors’ appointments have come about because every appointment between doctor and patient has been a new relationship. In order to ensure high quality medical care, it is necessary to take a bit more time at these first appointments. We’re starting to see wait times for appointments decreasing and it’s anticipated this will continue to improve over the next couple of months.
The Princeton Health Care Steering Committee meets monthly to address issues and to move forward on planning for improvements to health care. The Committee includes representation from elected officials, health care practitioners and staff, BCAS, South Okanagan Similkameen Division of Family Practice and community members. We’re excited to see new initiatives starting including addressing transportation issues, improving access to specialists, and building healthy community initiatives. We are always interested in hearing your thoughts and ideas and these can be submitted to the Committee at Comments@PrincetonHealth.ca.
Susan Brown R.N., BScN, MHS
CIHS Administrator Community Integration
Interior Health
