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Letter the very definition of NIMBY

Filled with uncorroborated anecdotal stories and incorrect information
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Letter the very definition of NIMBY

Re: “Health care overwhelmed, community in crisis”, Citizen, Sept. 3

Ms. Jackson’s letter, despite her preface that “Everyone deserves a home. Everyone deserves food, love and health care.” is the very definition of NIMBY. It’s also filled with uncorroborated anecdotal stories and incorrect information that no one should have been given based on B.C. and Canada’s privacy laws.

I find it extremely difficult to believe that any nurse at CDH would tell a parent whose son is in medical crisis, breaking all privacy laws, that they can’t treat the lady’s obviously severely ill child because they have too many overdoses! The more likely reason why the child was sent to Nanaimo for treatment in your story is because he was sicker than they could deal with at CDH, or that he needed a test or a specialist that CDH didn’t have access to.

As for the wait times for CDH, given that the Chemainus ER closes in the evening and CDH treats patients from Shawnigan to Ladysmith, along with the Valley’s population for all generations increasing, while we aren’t increasing the number of family doctors, the ER at CDH is consistently under pressure, with the wait times getting longer and longer.

Add the fact that many people end up at the ER for reasons that, to put it bluntly, do not require a doctor, let alone the emergency room at your local hospital, and the most important medications being handed out are things that you should already have in your medicine cabinet, not naloxone, maybe your letter, Ms. Jackson should be aimed at asking people to really think about whether they need the ER or can they wait to see their GP, or go to the walk in clinic.

I would also like to know where you get the idea that ambulances are coming to the Valley from other communities because we don’t have enough here in the Valley. The only ambulances that I am aware of that attend CDH that aren’t from the Valley, are for transporting patients from one hospital to another.

As far as affordable housing goes, as the population of both B.C. and Canada increases, the distance between those who can afford housing and those who can’t is also increasing. As Victoria gets more expensive to live in, people are going to look farther away for places to live, and what’s available here in town is going to continue to rise. On average, a one bedroom apartment is over $700 a month, and people still need either a full time job — the few that exist — or multiple jobs in order to make ends meet, so the need for affordable housing is going to increase, and not everyone who has a limited or lower income is a drug addict. Both the provincial and federal governments are aware that affordable housing is a need, and that it has become a major need for all communities, that doesn’t mean that we are ignoring the rest of the community. Saying that you aren’t part of NIMBY doesn’t make it true; as for driving to Victoria or Nanaimo if you are sick, you’ll probably find that the wait is just as bad!

Cat Parlee

Duncan