(Image credit: the Canadian Press).

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: The irony of the premiers meeting as Clearwater hospital closes again

Jul 13, 2022 | 5:14 AM

THIRTEEN PREMIERS wrapped up two days of meetings yesterday. As expected, health care was the big agenda item.

Coincidentally, as the premiers met in Victoria at the Empress Hotel, the Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital in Clearwater was in the midst of yet another temporary closure due to staffing shortages.

So far this year, the hospital has been closed 15 per cent of the time. Whenever there’s a closure, residents face the prospect of having to drive an hour and a half to Kamloops for care.

The Dr. Helmcken situation is but one example of the need for action to fix health care. There’s so much wrong with the system that we couldn’t possibly do a comprehensive list in the two minutes we have here.

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The premiers want the federal government to increase its share of healthcare funding from 22 to 35 per cent. That, they say, would provide provinces with stable funding that would allow them to deal with the crisis, whatever their plan might be.

There’s an old saying that there’s only one taxpayer. It means that whichever level of government funding comes from, it originates with taxpayers. So increasing Ottawa’s contribution to health care just shifts around slices of the pie rather than making the whole pie bigger.

If reworking the federal-provincial formula is the answer, then just do it.

Would it fix the staffing issue at Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital as well as so many other hospitals, including Royal Inland?

Would it attract more general practitioners and nurse practitioners to both rural and urban communities?

Would it reconstitute walk-in clinics, reduce wait times, get surgeries under control, stop communities from having to poach healthcare professionals from each other? Would it, in short, reverse the deterioration of the system?

Undoubtedly not overnight, but if it would start things moving in the right direction, the folks in Clearwater and so many other places would be grateful.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.