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Tuesday April 3, 2012 Serving Surrey and North Delta www.surreyleader.com
Court injunction stops anesthesiologists from withdrawing services
Doublemurderer admits to killing girlfriend
Surgical slowdown blocked
Jack Woodruff confessed to strangling Surrey’s Karen Batke
by Jeff Nagel B.C.’S HEALTH authorities have won a temporary court
injunction barring anesthesiologists from a planned job action that would disrupt thousands of elective surgeries this week. The B.C. Anesthesiologists Society (BCAS), which is in a labour dispute with the province, had vowed to reduce service at all Lower Mainland hospitals outside of Vancouver, as well as others on Vancouver Island and in the Interior, starting April 2. The B.C. Supreme Court ruling freezes that strategy until a full hearing can be heard on the injunction request April 18. Society president Dr. Jeff Rains said members intend to fully abide by the judge’s instructions. He would not say whether anesthesiologists will go ahead with the job action if the injunction request is rejected in court later this month. “We’ll have to just see what comes out in the hearing,” Rains said. “From the very beginning our path forward has not been as an end goal to withdraw services from patients,” he said. “Our goal is to improve services to Dr. Jeff Rains patients. “With or without an injunction, with or without service reductions, we still need a process to deal with the issues critical to anesthesia care in this province.” Interior Health president and CEO Dr. Robert Halpenny, speaking on behalf of all health authorities, said the injunction was necessary because urgent and emergency surgeries could have been compromised. He said anesthesiologists created confusion by suggesting they could do all needed procedures, but after regular hours, threatening to delay urgent and emergency procedures that normally get priority at those times.
by Sheila Reynolds THE MAN who pleaded guilty and
was sentenced to life in prison last week for the 2008 murder of a Mission couple has also confessed to killing his girlfriend, who vanished in Surrey in 2007. But Jack Woodruff is not facing charges for Karen Lynn Batke’s death. Batke, 39, went missing in February 2007. Last year, when Woodruff was arrested for the Mission murders of Lisa Dudley and Guthrie McKay, RCMP identified Woodruff as a suspect in Batke’s disappearance. Batke’s brother, Lorne Batke, told CBC in an exclusive interview this week that investigators told him while Woodruff was in prison awaiting trial for the Dudley and McKay shootings, he confessed to strangling Karen Batke in their Surrey basement suite.
“From the very beginning our path forward has not been as an end goal to withdraw services from patients.”
See CROWN / Page 5
BOAZ JOSEPH PHOTOS / THE LEADER
Centre stage Samantha Sadler of The Dancelab (Coquitlam) performs a solo modern routine (class age 16) at the 46th annual Surrey Festival of Dance on Saturday. The festival continues until April 25 at the Surrey Arts Centre.
See DE JONG / Page 5
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Jack Woodruff and Karen Batke.
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