Thoughts on BC Politics and More

An intensive-care-unit closing and restrictions on patient admissions at Port Alberni’s hospital due to a staffing shortage are expected to continue until at least early in the new year, as the province and Island Health work to resolve the situation. West Coast General Hospital’s emergency department remains open, but hospital-based doctors — called hospitalists — and intensive care unit physicians are no longer admitting new patients. The hospital has three hospitalists, who care for admitted patients who don’t have one of the six family doctors with hospital privileges or a specialist in charge of their care. Effectively, the hospitalists are on strike, awaiting the hiring of more physicians and a better contract ... CLICK HERE for the full story 

SHARED WITH PERMISSION ... from a musical friend of mine who is an ER physician in Penticton Do Not Rush to Get Tested for COVID-19!! Hello folks. As one of your local emergency physicians, I am going to take the role of devil's advocate and explain why I personally believe that testing is a waste of time for the general population.  Although the test is good at telling you if you have COVID-19, its sensitivity appears to be no higher than 75%. In medical terms, this means that 25% of people who have COVID-19 would actually test NEGATIVE. Whether you test positive or negative, still means that you need to SELF-ISOLATE. If you get a false sense of security from a negative swab, you may loosen your isolation precautions and infect many people. If you have symptoms and test negative (and actually are negative), then you may have something else like Influenza A ... H1N1 ... H3N2 ... Influenza B ... Parainfluenza ... Rhinovirus ... ...

So, can I say BC Health Care system sucks in at least one area?  Because it DOES! I had to take a family member into Emergency, at the Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, mid-afternoon on Sunday, due to severe and relentless pain.  ER staff were wonderful, caring, and showed great empathy.   Because there was no beds available on a ward, they were moved into an overflow area.  Not unexpected given that previous provincial governments have closed wards, floors, beds, and indeed entire hospitals. Problems arose however come meal time -- breakfast in particular.  This family member is diabetic, and has high blood pressure.  So what was served for breakfast?  High carbs, fruit juice, coffee, sugar, jam, sugary cereal, and other things of the same food groups.  None of which can be eaten, by some one with these medical conditions. When they explained this tray of food could NOT be eaten with some one with diabetes and...