A health care rally hosted by Cariboo Chilcotin MLA Lorne Doerkson in Williams Lake Friday, Aug 2 in Boitanio Park drew a crowd of about 250 people.
Doerkson said earlier in the week he was prompted to host the event due closures overnight of the emergency room at Cariboo Memorial Hospital during the month of July.
"I'm not here to hurt Interior Health," Doerkson said.
Doerkson told the crowd the health care system is losing people to stress leaves, medical leaves and investigation leaves.
"This challenge has to be addressed."
Doerkson was joined in addressing the crowd by other political leaders such as Mayor Surinderpal Rathor, former MLA Donna Barnett, Esk'etemc Chief Fred Robbins, Conservative Party of B.C. leader MLA John Rustad, plus local residents Sian Perry and Richard Norman.
Perry said her father died at home with no palliative care and no one to call and no help from the system.
"I just feel so strongly that seniors deserve so much more. My dad deserved more," she said. "I wish you could have all met my dad. Even until the very end, he still believed in our system."
Rathor said city council continues to pressure Interior Health and the Ministry of Health for solutions.
Council met virtually with Health Minister Adrian Dix on Tuesday, July 30.
He said he also met with Thompson Rivers University about increasing the nursing program at the Williams Lake campus to the full four-year program.
"I'm not going to say it will happen this September, but they are on board," Rathor said.
Robbins said the region has an aging population.
"I have 279 elders and of all of those elders many of them are looking for supports."
Robbins said there is a need for all ministries to work together for solutions for "our broken" health care system.
"I'd like to reach out to the universities and grab these young doctors and nurses and invite them to Williams Lake," Robbins said. "Who knows? They could become a foundation for this community and may spend the next 50 or 60 years in Williams Lake. That's the future I would like to see."
Former MLA Donna Barnett said she would like to see the control of hospitals go back to the model of 1969 and 1970 when there were local health care boards.
"We looked after ourselves and our system worked," she said.
Rustad, as party leader, said Germany has twice the population of Canada, yet Canada has ten times as many administrators as Germany.
"I've been told that close to 40 per cent of our nurses are administrators. We need to look at all of that and see how we can reallocate those resources toward services for people rather than pushing paper and the bureaucracy."
Doerkson said the intent of the rally was not to hurt Interior Health.
"Many people are served well in our hospital. The nurses, the doctors, the cleaning staff, everyone has one thing on their mind and that's taking care of you."
Watch for more about the event in the Tribune and on our website in the coming days, plus our interview with B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix about efforts underway to try and prevent future ER closures at CMH.
