Honouring fallen comrades at Dieppe page 11
A long wait for justice in murder case page 5
Tuesday July 31, 2012 Serving Surrey and North Delta www.surreyleader.com
Surrey council and staff expenses are up
Culture
club
But overall, it cost taxpayers $25M less to run the city last year than it did in 2010
A bacteria grower at Surrey Memorial Hospital’s Microbiology Lab shows where nearly three-quarters of patient-care decisions are incubated
by Kevin Diakiw IT COST $25 million less to run
Surrey last year compared to 2010, according to financial figures released by the city this month. Surrey’s 2011 Statement of Financial Information details how much money was received and how much was spent. The city spent $605 million last year, and of that, $453 million went to suppliers and third-party contracts – a drop of $37 million from 2010. Of that, $324,000 was spent bringing former U.S. presidents Bill Barinder Clinton ($102,453) Rasode and George Bush ($221,847) to Surrey’s Regional Economic Summit, but those costs were recouped through ticket sales. Another $150 million went to staff costs in 2011, which was an $11-million increase from the year prior.
BOAZ JOSEPH / THE LEADER
E. coli bacteria forms a pattern in a colourful growing material in the Microbiology Lab at Surrey Memorial Hospital. by Boaz Joseph
D
eep in the maze that is Surrey Memorial Hospital, hidden away from patients and visitors alike, is a critical cog in the medical machine. While people will often hear doctors or nurses talk about sending something to the lab, they’ve never seen the place responsible for assisting in nearly three-quarters of patient care decisions made in a hospital. At SMH, the lab is a busy place occupying two floors with its six departments: Medical Microbiology, Medical Biochemistry, Hematopathology, Anatomical Pathology, Transfusion Medicine and Accessioning. In the Microbiology Lab, Heather Kelly, 38, is one of the people in the yellow jumpsuits handling the fluid samples that come from patients. Samples of what? “My kids say the poop and the pee.� In more technical terms, it’s urine, stool, blood, lung
Hidden health care
First in a Leader special series on the quiet – yet still critical – side of Surrey Memorial Hospital
fluid and various human tissues – swabs of animal bites, surgical sites, even placentas. Kelly is a bacteria grower. She gives the example of Strep throat, caused (usually) by a Group A Beta-hemolytic Streptococcus. “You’ve got a sore throat, you go to the doctor and he takes a swab. He sends it to me, I put it on a plate the first day and it gets incubated.� The next day, she has a look at it. “From this, I’m going to decide what’s important� - she must differentiate the “bad� bacteria from the “good� normally found in a throat culture. “Our job is to isolate the bad bacteria – the stuff that’s going to cause you problems.� Although the 10-centimetre wide covered plates she handles look colour-coded with different shades of red, pink or brown, what gives them the colour is the growing medium on which the sample is placed. See BACTERIA / Page 3
See FULL REPORT / Page 4
Editorial 6 Letters 7 Sports 13 ClassiďŹ eds 15
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