Kamloops This Week February 16, 2017 by KamloopsThisWeek

THURSDAY, February 16, 2017

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YOUR OPINION

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

KAMLOOPS LAWYER WAS A ‘REMARKABLE HUMAN BEING’

DOCTOR RECRUITMENT TAKES TIME Editor: Re: Feb. 10 letter to the editor (“Building won’t solve doctor shortage”): Kamloops is my hometown — it’s a great place to live, work and raise a family. However, many residents still struggle with access to primary care. Brand-new facilities like the new tower at Royal Inland Hospital are just part of what attracts health-care professionals to a community. We are also hard at work on a four-point action plan to improve access to primary care in Kamloops, which has several elements that combine to make our community a desirable place to practice and live. Interior Health’s new specialized community-services site at the North Shore Health Science Centre opened on Feb. 6 and a practice-ready primary care space is on track to open in March. Interior Health also has a second specialized

community-services site opening at Northills Mall in April. In addition, recruitment strategies are underway. Six nurse practitioners are beginning to start work. Two physicians under the Practice Ready Assessment BC program have accepted three-year placements and are starting soon and we are working with Health Match BC to fill permanent positions. These elements will provide doctors interested in relocating with the kind of support network that many healthcare professionals are looking for, and new, attractive places to work without the headache of setting up or buying a practice. Recruitment takes time, but at the end of the day we are taking action that will make Kamloops an even more attractive community to a growing number of health-care professionals. Terry Lake Minister of Health

Editor: The First Nations Women of B.C. lost a truly remarkable advocate for the rights of our women and children. I am the last founding member of B.C. Native Women’s Society, which was founded in 1968; my late mother Mildred Gottfriedson was elected president. Besides her, there were a total of six founding women. We fought for rights in band membership which was, under the “Indian Act,” discriminatory — a mild work to define “Indian Women who married a man of other races” who lost their status, the right to live on reserve, to own property, to even be buried with their ancestors. We started to fight this section of the

Act at our first meeting in 1968. We started out meeting with the federal government. It was very frustrating in the late 1970s — and then we meet a young lawyer, Ken Tessovitch, who helped us immensely. We started the legal process of our fight which he worked endlessly for our society and we paid him peanuts. He stuck with us to the end. We finally changed the Indian Act in 1985; it’s known as Bill C-31. My mother had the outmost respect for Ken and so do I. He was and is a remarkable human being who believed in justice, equality rights of all people. “Go gently my dear friend.” Muriel Sasakamoose Kamloops

over my eye to stop the bleeding and put several stitches in my eyebrow, which had a nasty cut. I felt as if my cheekbone was broken. Tim said, “No, but you’ll have a black eye and a bad bruise on your face tomorrow.” He was right, but his fast treatment saved my eyesight. I am 82 years old and bereaved for almost a year. During my unfortunate husband’s long illness with cancer, gout in both his legs, heart trouble and severe arthritis, I met a lot of wonderfully kind men and women, but Tim stands

out as the most efficient and kindest nurse I’ve ever met. He was wonderful with the poor souls who could never recover and he did his best, beyond the callof-duty, to ease their suffering. He has a great sense of humour also. I hope I win the lottery so he can retire young. God bless you Tim, and keep the home fires burning in England and Canada. I hope you never feel like I do, still an alien in a foreign land after 50 years. S. A. Lewis Kamloops

TALK BACK Q&A: kamloopsthisweek.com We asked:

Will you take your glass and soft plastics to depots or toss them in the garbage under soon-to-be revised recycling rules?

A selection of comments on KTW stories, culled online

THANK YOU, TIM AT HILLSIDE CENTRE Editor: I wish to tell the people about a wonderful 59-yearold nurse at Hillside Centre, named Tim. While I was a patient there for one month, I had a really bad fall. I woke up suddenly, got out of bed, intending to go to the bathroom, when I lost my balance and fell, smashing my face on the floor and then feeling something sharp jabbing at my left eye. Tim heard me fall and picked me up, laying my 150-pound bulk on the bed. He put a damp cloth

Results:

To the depot: 553 votes Into the trash: 887 votes 1,440 VOTES

What’s your take?

TRASH 62%

DEPOT 38%

Do you think Christy Clark’s bogus hacking claim damaged her credibility?

Vote online:

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RE: STORY: DRUG DEALER WANTS TO ‘OWN UP’ TO PAST MISTAKES:

“Good for him. Hope he finds the support he needs.” — posted by Morgan

RE: LETTER: START ATTRACTING IMMIGRANT DOCTORS TO FILL SHORTAGE:

“The baby boomers made their bed, no sympathy from me and many many others.” — posted by Bruce Binner

RE: FLETCHER COLUMN: ELECTION BUDGET SETS THE STAGE:

“It is deplorable that [Tom] Fletcher et al normalize a budgeting process that saves up money to drop goodies on the voters before an election. “They deny needed services at an earlier time, and most of these election goodies are paid for on the backs of the lowest income earners in the province. It widens the gap between the haves and the have-nots. “Shame on Fletcher and the Liberals for this self-serving method of budgeting to buy elections and shame on any other party who does it as well.” — posted by JP Winston

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