TUESDAY JULY 30, 2013
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BCYCNA
Gold 2012 General Excellence
STILWELL SETS RECORD
SCOTTISH BAND ROCKS LASQUETI
Parksville Qualicum MLA wins gold at world championships
Hagana started its B.C. tour Friday in a gorgeous setting; return Aug. 10
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OCEANSIDE HEALTH CENTRE
Doctors on board Start of urgent, primary care remain on schedule JOHN HARDING
editor@pqbnews.com
The Vancouver Island Health Authority says it has hired 11 physicians for urgent care duty at the Oceanside Health Centre (OHC). That amount of doctors will allow VIHA to provide urgent care service at OHC as promised — 15 hours a day, 365 days a year — starting Sept. 16, said VIHA spokesperson Suzanne Germain. These urgent care physicians won’t be fulltime at OHC. They work in other areas of VIHA like the emergency department at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital. “They have other functions elsewhere,” said Germain. “But they want to do this — they are interested in this model.” VIHA is also “in the process of making offers” to two primary care physicians, which means the Sept. 30 goal for the start of primary care at the OHC is still in reach, said Germain. VIHA defines urgent care as “a brief encounter with health care service when an individual is ill and/or needs unexpected treatment to prevent admission to hospital and they are not able to be seen or accommodated by their own physician. Urgent care is for assessment and treatment of medical conditions that need same-day care, for example: asthma, simple fractures, lacerations, acute pain, shortness of breath, infections and allergic reactions.” It seems some members of the public believed urgent care was available at OHC right from its June 24 opening. Staff at the OHC had to call or an ambulance recently to get one person suffering trauma and another with a possibly serious heart problem to NRGH, said Germain. See 1,000 HERE, page A9
LISSA ALEXANDER PHOTO
ST. MARK’S FAIR: Qualicum Beach was bustling on the weekend as the annual St. Mark’s Fair filled Veterans Way and around the Community Centre with work from Island artists and artisans. Above, Maxwell Boyle was seen checking out some refurbished mirrors with his mom and dad. For more photos from the fair, and many other community events, visit our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/PQBNews.
A JULY WITHOUT RAIN
Streamkeepers urge conservation JOHN HARDING
editor@pqbnews.com
The unusually hot and dry weather throughout the month of July has the Streamkeepers “anxious” and they are calling on Parksville Qualicum Beach residents to up their conservation efforts. “Our stream flows are becoming perilously low, leaving the coho fry and cutthroat trout that live there at risk of predation in shallow pools or
disease from high water temperatures,” Streamkeepers’ Faye Smith wrote in an e-mail to The NEWS. “Over a month without rain and no rain in sight . . . Streamkeepers are starting to get anxious.” Environment Canada statistics gathered at the Qualicum Beach airport show zero precipitation from July 1-28 inclusive. The average temperature over that time was 24.6 C. The hottest day in the month was July
1 (29.7 C) and the lowest daily maximum temperature was 20.5 C on July 11. July is, on average, the area’s driest month (23.1 mm of rain on average). The wettest month is December (165.8 mm on average). The Environment Canada forecast is calling for 25 C and sunny through Thursday, with a 30 per cent chance of the region’s first rain for more than a month on Friday.
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