Sooke residents are urged to attend an open house on local health care this weekend.
It’s an opportunity for the public to provide feedback on health services, share views about local health-care delivery and propose ideas for improvement.
The meeting takes place Saturday (June 16) at Sooke Baptist Church, 7110 West Coast Rd., from 1 to 4 p.m.
The open house is a continuation of a planning process from last November’s health services stakeholder session, said Mayor Maja Tait.
Sooke residents can review the summary of priorities emerging from the Sooke Community Health Service Planning process and learn more about efforts to improve access to improve access to primary care. The draft document summarizes demographics and health care data.
Information garnered from the open house will be used to identify priorities to support improved access to health and health care in Sooke and develop strategies.
Members of the Sooke Planning Steering Committee Working Group will be available to discuss the draft plan. The meeting is sponsored by the District of Sooke, South Island Division of Family Practice and Island Health.
Tait said the open house is an informal gathering. There will be brief presentations from Tait and an Island Health official. Residents will be directed to different stations and offered information and asked for feedback.
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“Above anything else, we really want public opinion on the plan,” Tait said. “We don’t expect people to stay three hours, but even 10 minutes would be great so they can tell us what they think.”
Tait said there’s work happening behind the scenes to obtain local health-care services, and her group – Sooke Planning Steering Committee Working Group – needs more feedback to move forward.
The group is examining team-based primary care as a model, and has been lauded by the province on the initiative. Team-based primary care has doctors and other health professionals working together in the treatment of a patient.
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“Sooke’s growth and an aging population, means health care gets more complex,” Tait said. “So, we need to look at all the options.”
She said there remains a problem with people accessing a family doctor in Sooke, and Sooke, like every other community in Canada, is attempting to attract more, and as part of the open house, residents are encouraged to provide feedback and complete an online survey about access to doctors. Copies of the survey will also be available at the open house and at Municipal Hall.
The working group has also been successful in lobbying for improved X-ray services and attracting more health professionals to the community.
For more information on the draft Sooke Community Health Services Planning process and the open house, please go online to sooke.ca/health.
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