Open letter to Premier Clark and Dr. Lake:
May 18, 2015, marked the 17th month since my doctor, in West Kelowna, requisitioned GI screening be done on my behalf. That’s right…since December 18, 2013.
I was advised from the get-go that I could expect to wait up to 12 months for the procedures; however, on December 1, 2014, my doctor was advised that it could take a further eight weeks—or sometime around mid February 2015.
Mid February came and went with no word and no explanation.
Then in mid-April, my doctor was again contacted GI screening, and advised that it could take yet a further eight-week wait.
I have lost confidence that it will happen by mid June.
My condition has greatly worsened over the past seven months and I have daily on-going gastrointestinal issues.
It’s of absolute necessity that I obtain scoping and biopsies to assess and diagnose the problem.
Would you be waiting over 75 weeks to get diagnosed and treated?
Obviously Interior Health is shamefully failing to provide medically acceptable wait times, and all this is happening under your watch.
Whatever the reason, be it lack of accountability, or lack of funding, you have the power to fix it and it’s not getting fixed. This problem is solely on you, the Liberal Government of B. C. and Interior Health.
There needs to be a really close look at how our tax dollars are being spent at Interior Health and get the problem solved.
I’m frustrated, and I’m angry, and I’m tired of being sick every day, with no answers to the problem. How long is too long for a person to wait?
Seventy-five weeks and counting. Are people expected to accept this? Come on.
S. Vermette
West Kelowna
