To the Editor,
Recently, attending a meeting concerning Island Health’s new patient care model, I was impressed with the information provided and very moved by the passion, the caring and the professionalism of the nurses who told their stories. A week before, I was at Wexford Creek seniors care facility where I heard stories of the same frustration and fear, about cutbacks happening there.
These are not isolated cases threatening just our health-care system. Connecting the dots, it is now common government practice to cut back, downsize and download responsibility to levels below, inevitably ending at the personal consumer, the level that can least afford them or the reduction of services they represent.
Recently, Prime Minister Stephen Harper let the federal-provincial health accord lapse, cutting previous federal funding to the provinces. That burden is now being downloaded from the provinces to their various regional authorities and on down to the local level: hospitals, seniors care homes and other services.
The only growing sectors are favourite mega-projects like tar sands pipelines, F-35s, prisons and of course, our own made-in-B.C. economic saviour, fracked liquid gas. Each costs billions and is exactly the wrong things to be doing.
How did it ever get this crazy? When will our leaders learn? Not until we are willing to truly hold them accountable to us, in whose best interests they are supposed to serve and act.
Jordan EllisNanaimo
