The overwhelming response to the community forum to address concerns about the impending doctor shortage in Logan Lake resulted in Fire Chief Dan Leighton having to shift the fire trucks outside in order to move the more than 225 people to a larger space.
But the rising temperature in the room had nothing to do with the numbers. Rather, it was collective community concern about the impending lack of a doctor, the indefinite closure of the emergency department, and the fear that Logan Lake nurse practitioner Jocelyn Rhode will burn out from assuming a five-day-a-week schedule.
Another facet of this latter concern is what will happen to Logan Lakers if something such as an injury or serious illness should happen to Rhode which will prevent her from working.
The questions presented were polite but the anger and frustration simply grew as the six Interior Health Authority officials’ answers to why there would be no doctor and no access to emergency services centered on the fact that recruitment ads in medical publications had appeared nationally and provincially since Dr. Uzair Sheik tendered his resignation.
Dr. Curtis Bell, community medical health director with IHA who had come from Kelowna to attend the meeting, said Logan Lake had been a priority since Dr. Sheik’s resignation, but the process takes time and it could be several months before a replacement might be found. His comment “I wish we could do more” didn’t smooth the already ruffled feathers of attendees.
Over 200 people attended a public meeting in Logan Lake concerning the community’s impending loss of its only doctor. Barrie Ogden/Herald contributor
In the meantime, it was suggested that Logan Lake residents could access walk-in clinics in Kamloops, which require a 45-minute trip (providing roads and weather aren’t a problem) and then standing in line for more than an hour before the facility opens. With so many residents in the 55-plus age range and a number of those who have, in the last year, had their driver’s licences revoked for various health issues, simply getting to these clinics will be a major problem.
What about those with young families? Will these people have to pile children and babies into the car and take everyone to Kamloops and then stand in line because they don’t have immediate access to a babysitter?
Pharmacist Dona Radomsky arrived after her shift at the local drugstore but wasn’t happy with the meeting’s outcome. Speaking to her the next day, she was quietly vocal about how “health is a provincial responsibility and it’s up to the provincial government to ensure access to medical services” and pointed out that this problem is beyond the scope of the district council, members of which don’t have the necessary access to medical sites/sources to be able to attract a doctor to Logan Lake.
Acting Mayor Robin Smith and the five members of council who attended the forum are aware that the impending lack of medical services in Logan Lake is not an isolated situation. While IHA may be working on the problem, it’s still a problem that was created by that organization when it changed the doctor situation from a salaried to an “owner” position.
Unfortunately, Smith also pointed out the fact that another IHA staffing problem has seen Logan Lake without the services of a mental health worker for more than three months. Fortunately, late last week, a new person was available at the health centre to assist with those problems.
Smith and members of council are hoping to be able to arrange a meeting with Health Minister Terry Lake in the near future to discuss the widespread, negative impact this lack of medical coverage will have – not only on the community but on Highland Valley Copper’s employees should any type of accident occur there.
This will be an ongoing problem for Logan Lake residents far into the future and we can only hope that someone doesn’t die because of a lack of doctor and access to emergency services.
