In recent weeks and months, we have been privy to several stories regarding hospitals and patient care in the Lower Mainland, or should I say the lack of patient care.
I'm sure we all remember in March when the emergency department at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, the province's main trauma centre, was so crowded with patients that the Tim Hortons next door was double-doubled as a makeshift hospital ward. The public was outraged at the provincial government for putting hospital staff in the position where they had to go elsewhere to provide care to patients - and in a coffee shop, no less.
There have also been other stories of inadequate care and a lack of beds in many hospital wards and that more funds need to be put into our medical system.
While I don't deny that more funds are needed for our hospitals and patient care, I have witnessed first-hand the care and attention that two of my family members received at Royal Columbian and a friend received here on the Sunshine Coast at St. Mary's Hospital.
Both my mother and sister have had a series of medical issues in the past few months, and both received excellent care and attention at Royal Columbian, so good, in fact, that my sister plans to write and thank the doctors and nurses for making her stay as comfortable as possible while dealing with a serious medical issue. My mom, too, has nothing but good things to say about our medical system and her time in hospital.
Last weekend, two slo-pitch teams that I play on in Vancouver came to the Coast for the Perfect Storm long weekend slo-pitch tournament. On Saturday morning during our first game, a ball was hit to the outfield. One of our players slightly misjudged the ball and it cracked her in the face, splitting her lip and bruising her face. I drove her to St. Mary's and dropped her off at the ER.
Two hours later, she was back at the park, with a sore upper lip and a pretty good bruise, but was in good spirits and raving about the treatment she had just received.
"For a small town, you have a great little hospital here," she told me.
And the accolades for our hospital don't end there.
This community has banded together over the past few years in the Back the CAT effort to get a Cat scanner for St. Mary's and the ultimate fundraising effort for the major hospital expansion that is on time and on budget to open late next year.
I heard through a reader that Dr. Dan Dolden from St. Mary's reports that the scanner has paid for itself 100 times over and that the doctors of the Coast have commented how fortunate they are to have it here.
And just last week, the Royal Bank Foundation, in honour of the Gibsons branch's 50th anniversary, provided a $25,000 donation to the hospital foundation for the expansion project.
Yes, there are troubling stories and experiences with our health care system, but it's not all bad. Just look at the success of our little hospital in Sechelt. We have it pretty good, and we should all be proud of the care and treatment we receive.
