Dear Editor,
I am glad to see letters from local people here in Ashcroft like Martin Clayford and Rhoda Hanson who say:
“At last, someone with the courage to put down in writing what a lot of us have been thinking. Our government with the support of Interior Health is destroying our health care and our facilities. Every time I go into our hospital, I see all the plaques on the wall and I think of all the hours of work that went into supporting the hospital, raising money and volunteering time for the care of our citizens. All for naught, as we are governed now by a group of people who don’t give a sweet damn about our health care.”
There is a long letter in the same issue of the Ashcroft Journal (May 14, 2015), extolling the efforts of Interior Health in Ashcroft and district which is signed by Bernie Easson, health services administrator. This letter, in my opinion, is nothing but propaganda.
My experience with Interior Health has been entirely negative. My husband and I used to donate $500 every year to the palliative care unit in the Ashcroft Hospital towards the purchase of things needed in the unit. Then we found out that Interior Health was taking a percentage of the money. We asked if we could donate a piece of furniture or some item they needed, and we found out that Interior Health took pictures of the units and still took their percentage.
Later, Interior Health closed our hospital and sent all the equipment to Kamloops. Before that the hospital delivered babies, reset broken bones and did minor surgery. Now all we have is a doctor’s office with one doctor who can’t take any more patients. What was once a hospital is now a place where people in various stages of mental and physical decline are housed.
Interior Health is doing a fine job!
Pat Baker
Ashcroft
