
SOUND OFF: Former Merritt doctor laments the decline of health care in the community
MY NAME IS ROBERT (BOB) HOLMES and I have lived in the Nicola Valley (Nlaka’pamux Territory) for the past 48 years. I arrived in Canada in March 1966 with my wife and three children as a trained and qualified general surgeon. You may remember that there was a huge exodus of professional people from Britain at that time, known as the “Brain Drain.”
Lester Pearson was our prime minister and W.A.C. “Wacky” Bennett was our B.C. premier. The Canadian dollar was 10-to-15 cents stronger than the U.S. dollar. The rest of the world looked up to this country and B.C. truly had a wonderful healthcare system. Hospital beds were readily available for $1-per-day co-insurance. This followed the groundbreaking work of Tommy Douglas in Saskatchewan. I had been recruited by Dr. L.M. Greene to work in Prince Rupert. He flew to London to interview me at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane, where he was staying. That alone is an indication of his financial well-being. There was no cost to the taxpayer, unlike today when health authorities employ recruitment teams with very poor results.
To cut a long story short, in 1975 my wife and I (now with five children) moved to an old ranch house in Coutlee, next to Shulus Indian Reserve, mostly because of the dry climate and because I enjoyed working with Indigenous people. I had previously worked in Eastern Uganda from 1960 to 1963, a wonderful experience. In 1975, the Nicola Valley General Hospital had 48 beds and five people in administration; nowadays, it seems almost the opposite. In those days, the doctors would take turns to work 48-hour shifts in the emergency room and then do a normal week’s work in the office.
Everything changed in 2001 with the advent of Interior Health Authority, a truly authoritarian organization, introducing a climate of fear among hospital staff. That was when I handed in my medical license and retired. I was 66 years old.