A8 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, March 11, 1998 Stew pot of crucial issues Health care needs healin THOSE WHO provide health care meet tomor- row night around a table heavily burdened with a growing number of critical issues. While the main players don’t want to call what’s happening a crisis, they acknowledge that accumulated problems are beginning to lake a (oll on local health care. The meeting between Mills Memorial admin- istralors, staff, the health council which runs the place, physicians and nurses is regarded as criti- cal to how the medical system will function here in the years ahead. Here are some of the major sore points, m@ Departing specialists. Onc of just two anesthetists, a radiologist and one of two pediatricians are leaving within a short period of lime, Finding and keeping specialists in the north has always been a problem and it's getting worse. The anesthetist is Dr. Phil Lin. He’s been here, with the exception of three years, since 1986. That’s a long time for a northern specialist so his departure in May is no surprise. But the departure of the other two — relative newcomers — is being called a sign that there’s trouble. . Lin says “‘the fragile specialist eco-system’’ is ihreatened in (that specialists need each other in order to practise their craft. Losing one or tvo will mean thal others won’t be able to work and they’Il be the next to leave. That process accelerates until the city and area are left without crucial specialist services. @ Finding new specialists. There’s a shortage not just in the north but elsewhere. Given a choice between the big city and the north, the former usually wins. This will get worse with plans to cut off what was once a supply source from countries such as South Africa. The national college which gives foreign specialists credentials wants them first to pass muster in selected North American medical schools. ; What might happen is a never ending stream of temporary placements — locums — and con- stant emergencies when the one you need can’t be found, even for a short time. And although specialists might be found, the issue of burn out from having to be available at night and to do regular day duties remains to be solved, @ Patient types. Whether the provincial government likes it or not, Mills is a regional referral centre because of the number of © specialists located here. That means the number of paticnts in for more be THE SIGN which directs people in need of care at Mills Memorial Hospital now applies to the facility itself as those who work inside struggle with a wide variety of Issues. Car clone caper THAT VEHICLE you saw advertised for such a good price could be a stolen clone. ; ICBC and the police are working together to shut down a new breed of auto theft rings. The ring steals a vehicle, then takes registration papers from another vehicle of the same make, model and colour. Next they make Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) tags and stickers for the stolen vehicle using the number on the stolen registration papers. They forge the signature of the person on stolen registration papers, then transfer the vehicle into a fic- titious name. Then the theft ring places an ad in the newspaper. Buyer beware, because unless the thief is caught and ordered to make restitution, there’s no recourse for the buyer if the car is discovered to be stolen. If a vehicle is purchased through a licensed auto dealership, then found to be stolen, the buyer will be compensated. Key things to watch for are a private sale wilh an as- king price well below the going rate, and a seller only reachable by pager or cellular phone. A mechanic can usually determine if the VIN has been tampered with. critical care is above the normal level of general care otherwise expected for a hospital the size of Mills and for the city the size of Terrace. Since Mills receives only money to run a gen- eral services facility, taking care of more critical patients puts an added financial strain on Mills and it’s one reason the hospital runs in the red, @ Nursing re-organization. It’s been more than a year since Mills shuffled its nursing ser- vice to have all nurses do all things and nat be tied to specific wards. The idea was that fewer nurses would be re- quired at any onc time since they could cover all areas. The effects of this are still being felt and no- body’s happy with the juggling that’s going on. And as specialist services teeter on the edge, so will the availability of the trained specialty nurses. Burn out is also a factor here. @ Renovations. In a perfect world the nurs- ing re-organization was to go hand in hand with a $1 million renovation of the main medical ward floor. One part of this was to construct one main nursing station to avoid staffing the three that were once there. One nursing station was closed and in January the second one, by the pediatrics and matemity net 6 ki ¢ 606 Hyjacking Hi-jinx “Hey, Manny, put down that gun and lis- tan” 16 year old Manny looked up at his buddy, Jack. “Tommorrow, let's hijack our school bus.” Manny's mouth dropped opan, “You crazy or something?" Jack nodded his head. “That's just it. I'm crazy and you're crazy and that's the problem." Manny looked puzzled. “Manny you've got to admit, eve- rything we do is nutty. Nobody at school YOu BE THE JUDGE distance down the road, the boys saw a huge police road block. Flashing lights, shot guns, the whole works. Jacked BASED ON ACTUAL COURT * CASES wants to be with us, They call us social misfits. If we grab someone ito talk to them, we land up throwing them to the ground, evan if we never meant to do it. The whole school is scared of us. Besides you've got to admit, something has to be the matter with us when wa're 16, and in a class ful of 12 year olds.” Manny went back to cleaning his gun. “Why a hijacking?” Jack answered, “Be- cause hijacking is a criminal act. But they won't throw us in prison because we'll plead we're mentally incompatent. That way they'll put us into a mentat institution, We'll each hava our own room next to each other. And that way we'll get help and stay out of trouble.” The next day, the boys put their plan into operation. The bus stopped at the red light in frant of their house. The boys boarded the bus as usual. Quick as lightening, Manny drew his gun polnted It al the driver and yelled. “This is a hijack. Everybody put up your hands. Driver, if you don't want anyone to be hurt, do as we say. Drive this bus to the neighboring town.” . A paralyzed silence overtook the child- ren. They did as they were told. A shart turned lo Manny, “well, this is where we gat off.” Manny looked worried, “driver,” he said, “pull us over. We're gonna surrender!” The boys threw themselves on the mercy of the court, “Your Honour, we're not well. We know we have a mental ill- ness. We can't cope in a normal society. We don't understand the consequences of our actions. We only did this to get the help we need, Jail can’t cure us of our problems. Please send us to a mental institution!” The Crown was not impressed, “Your Honour, these boys knew full well what they were doing. They planned evary- thing in advance, even the taking of hos- tages. We found notes and books detail- ing every action. They had every inten- tion of pleading mental illness before the whole thing started. Put these hoodtums in jail where they belongl” Should the boys go to jail? Youl Be the judge. Then look below for the decision. SPONSORED BY oty Ss 9 & GRug , LAWYERS “Helping People Cope with the Legal System” “Sp Grant Lindsey Criminal Defence Law #2 4623 Lakelse Ave., Terrace, B.C. Holly Grueger General Law Phone 638-1764 Fax 638-7249 Marshall Matias Family Law YOU BE THE JUDGE - DECISION colurmnlat. Copyignt 1907 Harke Enterprisas. B12-8 "Gullty!" intonad tha Judge. “You boys knew what you were doing all along. There's advidence of advance plannin: and you can't hida behind a mental iiineas to try to get off the hook.” OU BE THE JUDGE is based on actual court canes. Today's decision Is based on the facts of the cage and the jaw of the province of Mi Hyou have a almiisr problem, please consult Lindsay & Grueger, Clalre bh In ibe lawyer and y d wards was also shut. That left nurses working out of one main sta- tion on a floor not designed for such a move, This was the main topic of a meeting last month and was also to be discussed at a second meeting last month. : Bot now it has to share billing with all the rest of the problems. Bi Aren't we saving money? The idea behind having specialists working in an adequate hos- pital kere should be to save the cost — bath per- sonal and to the government — of flying south for routine or emergency treatment. This should be a no-brainer when considering that a single medevac flight costs more than ~ $10,000. But the system doesn’t work thal way, says — Helmut Giesbrecht, the NDP MLA for Skeena _ and newly-appointed parliamentary secretary to the health minister, A health care dollar may be a health care dol- lar, but it’s divided up into separate and com- plex slices of pie and there’s no way of balanc- ing an expenditure in one area for an expected savings in another. *¢¥ou’d necd a whole lot of money to add and then wait a year later to sec what happened and we don’t have that kind of pool to draw from,” Giesbrecht added. Gayton Nabess Ted Hicks, Sales Manager, is pleased to announce that GAYTON NABESS, through his customer satisfaction and sales achievements, has been named SALESMAN OF THE MONTH FOR FEBRUARY. We know that his many frlends and loyal customers join us in extending congratulations. 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