AND THE RAINS CAME . . .
TODAY’S WEATHER
BLITHE SPIRIT DELIVERS WCT play a wild romp through the supernatural
Month’s worth of rain on Saturday
Sunny, cool High 10 C Low -3 C
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KAMLOOPS THIS WEEK TUESDAY
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OCTOBER 11, 2016 | Volume 29 No. 123
Can clinics be ready by January 2017? TWO HEALTH CENTRES WILL SEE PATIENTS ATTACHED TO DOCS — WITH APPOINTMENTS DALE BASS STAFF REPORTER dale@kamloopsthisweek.com
DAVE EAGLES/KTW After having his bicycle stolen while looking for work at the Aboriginal Training and Education Centre, Reggie Nelson, who sufferes from rheumatoid arthtitis, continues to keep a positive attitude in hopes of finding work to pay back a personal loan for the new bike he was forced to buy.
Bike more than a ride for Reggie
JESSICA WALLACE
STAFF REPORTER
jessica@kamloopsthisweek.com
Reggie Nelson needs a job to pay for his bike, which is a replacement for his previous bike, which was stolen while he was hunting for work. The vicious circle has left the 21-year-old feeling hopeless. “I have a pretty good feeling I won’t get it back,” he said. Nelson has been accessing
services at the Aboriginal Training and Employment Centre (ATEC) in North Kamloops four to five days a week since the beginning of September, searching for a restaurant job after moving to Kamloops from Nanaimo in July. On Tuesday, Oct. 4, at about 10 a.m., Nelson biked to the centre on Briar Avenue from his Elm Street home. He stopped in to jot down a few places he could apply that
morning. It was then he realized he left his bike lock key at home. “It seemed a little far to go back and get my keys because I was already kind of late,” he said. “I wanted to get out the door at nine o’clock to go job searching.” Nelson figured the bike would be safe in front of the centre for five minutes, so he leaned it up against the front door and went inside. See NEXT STEP, A4
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Dr. Chip Bantock doesn’t expect to see two new medical clinics open by January — despite that prediction by the B.C. health minister — but he’s fine with that. For Bantock, head of the Thompson Region Division of Family Physicians, the decision to create the two primary-care centres on the North Shore is a positive step in resolving the lack of family physicians in Kamloops. Bantock said the best estimate he has heard is up to 30,000 people in the city are without a family physician. The 2014 census put Kamloops’ population at about 87,000. Bantock, however, qualified the statistic by noting it’s his belief only 15,000 to 20,000 residents actually want or need a doctor. He took part in a press conference last week at which Health Minister Terry Lake announced creation of the new clinics — one at the North Shore Health Centre at 370 Tranquille Rd. and the other in Northills Centre at 700 Fortune Dr. — that will be turn-key operations ready for an anticipated five to seven new doctors to start seeing patients. The Tranquille site, which will be moving into some of the unoccupied space in the building, will have a focus on diabetes, lung and heart,
substance-abuse and mental-health conditions. The clinic in the shopping centre will have clinicians who deal with other health care based around the concept of providing home care. Both will also have family doctors in place to provide medical care, the result of a partnership between the division, Doctors of B.C. and the health ministry. A ministry spokesperson said each site will have a group of practitioners rather than a single doctor. The specialized services are being provided by Interior Health Authority. ”The patients will be attached to that clinic, which will be their regular team of family doctors/nurse practitioners,” the spokesperson said. “People would be able to make prescheduled or same-day appointments. There may be the ability to accommodate walk-ins, but this will be determined by the practice team once they are in place. There may be capacity to offer extended hours, but this will also have to be established as the family doctors and nurse practitioners are recruited.” It’s all part of a change in how medicine is practised, Bantock said, noting there was a time when “fewer doctors did so much more” and were also working at hospitals. See COMMUNITIES, A4
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