The frustration our community is feeling over the closures of Cariboo Memorial Hospital has certainly become obvious to me through the letters, emails, texts, and phone calls that have flooded into our offices.
These frustrations have turned more serious with the diversion of patients in dire emergency situations. Most recently the situation that developed with a 15-year-old young girl in anaphylactic shock after receiving a bee sting.
We have had many stories of serious situations shared with our office over the years, but recently this has become an all-too-common occurrence at Cariboo Memorial Hospital.
My frustration is that despite many suggestions, nothing seems to change. I fear that we have not seen an open and transparent plan to fix this.
I have spoken with staff from all different departments in that hospital, and they have all expressed their frustrations and concerns about what's happening.
This is a regional hospital that serves tens of thousands of people, and my concern is that, in these emergency situations, our community members must travel long distances for care.
To shed more light on these frustrations, I am hosting a rally this Friday night (August 2) at 5:30 p.m. at Boitanio Park in Williams Lake.
This will be an opportunity for our residents to share their thoughts and ideas and to publicly send a message to Interior Health and our provincial government that this is unacceptable. We must show our community is not going to take this lying down.
