With ongoing gratitude
I would like to take this opportunity to thank two unknown “Good Samaritans” who stopped to help me up off the pavement after I fell on the ice on my way up 7th Avenue on Sunday morning.
I had thought I was doing a pretty good job of avoiding the icy patches up to that point, but I am visually handicapped and walk with a cane – a combination that guaranteed disaster when I failed to notice the extent of the hazard at the intersection by the on-Line school that morning.
I went down hard and just as I despaired of ever getting up on my own, two cars stopped to aid me. A wonderful woman and a man, fellow Castlegarians, positioned themselves one on each side, and literally hauled me up while striving themselves to avoid slipping.
I am so grateful that I want to share their kindness with everyone. They deserve a medal.
To them I say, “Thank you and God bless you.”
I suffered a headache, strained wrist and wounded pride. It citizens like you who make this community the wonderful place it is.
Sincerely,
-C.M. Berg,
Castlegar
Give the game a chance
As a patron of the bingo at Chance’s I am very saddened to hear and see all the negative opinions from the various people in our community regarding the bingo.
I wonder if a lot of the negativity comes from people not realizing that the monies from bingo go back into the community through charities and non-profit organizations as it always had in the past. The only difference as far as I can tell is there are now wages also paid to a few staff, which in turn provides jobs.
Every time bingo gets cancelled or runs with just a few players, the ones who suffer are the charities and non- profit organizations, because there is just a small amount of money for them to draw from.
In the past, the Rebels and other organizations functioned on volunteers and fundraisers.
Chances bingo is providing a new way to fund these organizations. Where else can you go have a nice meal, drinks served at your table, and play bingo?
In case people are not sure about the electronic way of playing bingo the ladies will help get you started or you can still bring your daubers and play on the paper cards.
I hope people will come out and give bingo a try, meet those of us who do come and have a nice relaxing evening or afternoon. Thank you for reading this.
-Candis Jerome,
Castlegar
Sounding off on healthcare situation
The list of downgraded services in our health care system steadily grows, whether it is in the emergency room, the ambulance service, community nursing, public health nursing, home support services, hospital care and so on.
The tragedy is that there is a whole generation of younger people now who have no idea what constitutes a good health care system. The Ministry of Health Services, and its servant, the Interior Health Authority, now run our health care system on a business model whereby the lowest level of health care is the benchmark of success. The benchmark now is not what constitutes good health care but what they think the community will tolerate in terms of downgrading or removal of services before they shout “Enough”.
Castlegar & District Health Watch and similar groups in other West Kootenay communities have been researching and documenting the changes made to our health care system in this area since 2002 and some definite trends have emerged.
1) Centralization and reductions in health care services and options
which penalize the patient in a variety of ways.
2) The addition of costly expansions to hospitals while basic health care services are being cut back here.
3) The lowering of criteria for standards of health care services here.
4) The downloading of costs on to patients and the creeping privatization of services which were previously publicly subsidized.
5) The deliberate ignoring of input from stakeholders (patients, families community groups, nurses, doctors etc) on community health care.
6) Burgeoning costs in IHA’s administration as it constantly implements new organizational structures and additional levels of supervision.
Have we, the public, had enough yet? What else are you prepared to tolerate?
Sincerely,
-Sally Williams, Castlegar & District Health Watch, 250-365-3126
Good citizens
We live in a beautiful area and yet some people thoughtlessly litter our landscape. We are dismayed at the number of food and beverage containers thrown about, but when a freezer full of rotting meat was discarded near the river, that took the cake!
But do not despair. Good citizens quietly collect litter from our streets, trails, roads, and from our rivers and lakes.
Thanks go to Rob Zavaduk and to LeRoy Laybourne of the West Kootenay Flyfishing Club who removed not only the freezer but a rusting car body from the Lower Brilliant Terrace.
To all of you who collect litter – thanks. Please keep it up until everyone in our town stops littering.
-Muriel Walton,
Castlegar
Invitation to hospital vigil
Last week while watching Global news, I was shocked and dismayed to see that history was repeating itself.
Six years after the death of my parents by Interior Health Authority, here we are again. Despite assurances by the Health minister that this would never happen another time, they were going to separate a Penticton couple who have been married for over sixty years, because according to IHA, they required different levels of care. So what?
We put a man on the moon over 40 years ago and have sent many missions to the space station etc. yet IHA cannot decide the right thing to do when handling seniors and their spouses. (Kiro Manor used to house senior
.couples requiring varying levels of care.)
When will common sense, compassion and respect, replace stupidity and rigid policies? Getting old is not a crime; it is a fact of life. Our seniors deserve to be treated with compassion, dignity and respect.
The recent fiasco over closing the Castlegar Hospital emergency without proper notification is another instance of the incompetence and arrogance of this organization.
The right hand really does not know what the left hand is doing. The number of administrators in this organization is mind-boggling and the salaries they command are criminal. There is no shortage of health dollars in this province.
Health authorities and their huge administration staff are gobbling up the majority of those dollars. Alberta got rid of their health authorities after only a couple of years, when are we going to recognize them for what they are and get rid of them also?
The interior, and in particular the West Kootenay, had great health care before the arrival of IHA. The slash and burn policies of this organization have left us with fewer hospitals, and less residential and acute care beds, all this while administration grows unchecked and unjustified.
The people of Castlegar are asking that someone should be held accountable for leaving them without emergency services and rightly so. After my mother died, my dad was asked what he thought should happen as a result of my Mom’s death, and he said “Those in charge, should be discharged.”
At the very least, people should have been dismissed in both cases and in my mom’s case, a charge should be laid. Accountability is a must for any business or organization to thrive, or even survive. When that does not exist, people will think they can literally get away with murder.
We will be holding our annual vigil, on Monday, Feb. 20 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. outside the Trail hospital, to protest the death of my parents, loss of area services and the current treatment of seniors.
Your support would be welcome.
-Jim Albo
Rossland
