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Well, we’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is, that white stuff is probably going to be gone by the time you read this paper. The bad news is, well, that white stuff is probably going to be gone by the time you read this paper. It will be replaced by rain and warmer temperatures for the foreseeable future, if Environment Canada has it right. Which is probably sad news for six-year-old Szilard and 11-year-old Bence Puddiford, at right, who were clearly among the fans of the snow when photographer Jennifer Gauthier caught up with them on Burnaby Mountain. Jennifer Gauthier/burnaby now
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Burnaby surgery waits could prove costly Cornelia Naylor staff reporter
Burnaby Hospital could cost Fraser Health more than $600,000 in fines for making people wait more than a year for surgery. Under provincial legislation, health authorities are penalized financially for patients who spend more than 52 weeks on a wait list. Fraser Health faces up to $2.5 million in fines for wait times at hospitals across the region, but only Surrey Memorial (at about $780,000) could cost the health authority
more than Burnaby. In a bid to avoid the penalties, Fraser Health officials sent surgeons across the region a memo on Nov. 4, telling them to reassess patients who have waited more than 40 weeks. “There still remains a volume of patients whose bookings are causing financial penalty. It is imperative for the interest of all, including our patients, that we use every available strategy to avoid penalties,” stated the memo, signed by Fraser Health executive director Judith Hockney and director of surgery Dr. Peter Blair. The notice was leaked to the Canadian
Taxpayers Federation, which accused the health authority Thursday of trying to find a loophole to avoid the fines. “It’s bad enough these people are being forced to wait a year for surgery, but now Fraser Health wants to play games with their wait times,” said the federation’s B.C. director Jordan Bateman. “Dragging these people around and around the system as a loophole to avoid financial discipline is ludicrous.” Bateman said there was no medical reason for the reassessments and suggested they were meant to pause or reset wait times for long-delayed cases.
Blair said that wasn’t true. “This process does not impact the patient’s wait time on the wait list,” Blair said in a email statement to the NOW. “It does not reset the patient or put them back to zero. The goal is to improve patient care and timely delivery of surgery.” But longtime local doctor David Jones, who spent six years as medical director at Burnaby Hospital, said the reassessments would do little to cut wait lists besides clearing people off who had died, moved away or changed their minds about surgery during their 40-week wait.
Surgery Page 8