Dear Editor
Several persons have told me they are going to Merritt now to see a doctor because of the medical crisis here in Ashcroft.
You might get the impression that having to travel up and over a mountain, through miles of undulating bush and farm land, lakes and sundry streams to reach a doctor who will serve their needs, is okay.
Well, I suppose it is okay if you have the time, have a vehicle, can cope with the cost, and you like the scenery, at least in the summer and fall. Winter, of course, might prove a bit of a challenge. Let’s just hope the need is no more than a prescription renewal, or the usual check up.
For the multitude of seniors, single parents with children, however, reaching a physician can be more of a challenge. It can mean a danger to a life.
Let us recall, when one of our citizens in the community suffered an allergic reaction and our ER was closed. Without going into the details, this fine woman, mother, wife, died as a result of the reaction in RIH. She was 58.
This should have been a wake up call. Several letters to the editor resulted from this tragic incident. It could, and will happen again.
There are doctors in Lillooet, 100 Mile House, Williams Lake, even little old Lytton, and doctors rotating from these communities to serve the native peoples of the area. Surely, there are answers to our chronic on-going decades old problem here in Ashcroft.
Wellness is more than a state of mind. It’s having a functioning hospital, with medical doctors and or nurse practitioners, – the latter working in Chase, a community not muchj larger than Ashcroft.
Esther Darlington MacDonald
Ashcroft
