Editor:
I recently visited a friend who was admitted to Peace Arch Hospital.
Again I was appalled to find all the beds in emergency, including all the corridors, were full.
My friend was offered a “private room” for $165 a night. It seems there are four such rooms at PAH. Each room could accommodate four regular patients, which means that keeping these special rooms available for wealthier patients keeps 16 patients in the corridors instead of in proper beds.
Since these extra fees could hardly make much impact on PAH’s multi-million-dollar budget, there must be a secret agenda at work here.
Has Fraser Health been told by the B.C. government to keep a quota of private rooms at each of the hospitals for their first-class friends? Apparently, these rooms are also used by third-class individuals brought in by police and prison service.
Meanwhile, the second-class – the 99 per cent – are expected to provide donations to improve the PAH.
All along, Fraser Health boasts of its “transparency,” but I will bet that only the government-appointed directors ever see the operating budgets for our hospitals.
It would be an eye-opening event for the public to see what the top 10 paper-pushers – no direct medical services to the public – at PAH are costing the taxpayers.
It’s time our hospitals had publicly appointed directors who could keep the public informed.
Herb Spencer, Surrey
