Terrace Standard, Wednesday, June 21, 2000 Hospital audit may not be magic bullet —- MLA SKEENA NDP MLA Hel- mut Giesbrecht is worried that a financial audit of Mills Memorial Hospital may bring unwanted Te- sults. The audit, to -be con- ducted by the finance ministry in response to let- ters from a local health watch group questioning expenditures, at. licy issues, says’ Gies- brecht. oo: Health watch. group members, however, :hope the efficiency ‘audit’ will then set the stage for more. money for the hospital. “It'll only address. the issue if Mills Memorial is functioning the. way it should,” said Giesbrecht. “It won't make: any. state- ments about - funding levels.” _ “The office doing the audit is totally non-politi- cal.. It will just look to see Mills, won't consider broader po- . that the money is going where it is supposed to go.” That will leave the broader issues such’ as money for regional and specialty services. unre- solved, Giesbrecht added. It’s this provision of ser- vices, such as having out- of-area. patients. admitted here, which: has placed-a Strain’ on ‘the hospital’ S. budget. ‘Health ministry officials have so far not been kind: to the position that Mills “acls as ‘a regional centre for some: specialties. - They've also. said Mills to.the intensive ‘care. ward. health ministry may not lock kindly on repeated re- quests for more money, the MLA said. “My view. is that exter- nal reviews don’t help-us,” he added ‘in noting that one such review in: the early. 1990s: recommended : that. orthopedic ‘surgical services be taken from the - and = Kitimat. hospital: .-and _Mmoved to Prince Rupert. * earlier: review: at’ Mills, also in the early 1990s, re- sulted: ina recognition that it needed more money. ° That. money was provi- “ded for a while, but was gels enough money to ful-. fil its function as a local hospital. - “"That’s all. the audit may ‘say — the revenue is in accordance withthe funding formula, period,” said Giesbrecht. That being the case, the Fill-in docs sought to ease s hortage of obstetricians IT WILL take a while longer before a general practitioner will be certi- fied to do caesarian sec- tions here and help make up for the loss of .one of the city’s twa obstetri- cians. Work is still in progress to get general practitioner Dr. Willem Fourie certi- fied so he'll be able to handle some of the on-call and emergency work on evenings and weekends, said Terrace and. Area Community Health Coun- cil chief executive officer Dieter Kuntz. Pregnant women here were warned this month. they might have -to- be transferred out of town ‘ after. obstetrician and py- necologist Dr. Sheila Wat- son left town. Her departure left Dr, . Lani Almas here, who could not be expected to be on-call every night of the week. Kuntz said statements attributed to him in last » week's Standard that Four- ie would be certified by working with Almas and From front that he would soon be able to wark here were incor- rect, “Dr, Almas has not agreed to certify Dr, Fourie,” Kuntz said. “For that reason he (Fourie) has made arrangements to be certified by Dr. Pienaar in Prince Rupert.” Fourie needs to perform three. elective caesarian sections under Pienaar's guidance in Prince Rupert to get certification, he said,. adding that could take some time. “We're talking in terms of a month, maybe twa months —1 don’t know.” That’s just one stop-gap _ Measure, while the search continues for a permanent replacement for Watson. “We're still recruiting for a permanent replace- ment,” Kuntz confirmed. Almas said she is also working to arrange short- term fill-in coverage by various out-of-town obste- tricians. The first one could be here as early_as July 7th for a five-day stint, she said. some Rupertites flying fro and out of Terrace starting July 17. That means there are also more seats available than previously for people irying to use up frequent flier points. The crunch for seats in Prince Rupert, however, where just two flights a day go in and out, has prompted. some people there to book travel out of ne w in PICNIC BACKPACKS . * Stocked with marinades, ‘veggie dips © and bread dipping sauces Open Fridays ‘til'9 pity. a m here the Terrace airport, rather than Prince Rupert. Contributing to that de- cision is the fact higher airport fees and the ferry to the airport on Digby Island add about $44 to the price of each ticket in the port city, Francis said. “] have about six clients in Prince Rupert who book with me out of Terrace,” she said. store. thet Yellow Gift House on Highway ie: -638- 1808 | And Giesbrecht said an. then stopped, said Gies- brecht. In the meantime, there’s still no word on what budget Mills will get this year from the provin- cial government. And Giesbrecht. said he’s: having no luck in finding out: ‘any informa- tion. wo Last-year,-~ and the community health council. had an early glimpse atthe proposed budget.. 2. They didn't like the numbers and there was then time to successfully lobby for an increase,” Giesbrecht- RANDY DOMBOWSKY Regional Director and _ W.JOHN ACRES Associate Regional Director are pleased to announce the recent addition of CHERYL HABART to the Terrace office. Cheryl brings to Investors Group 20 years of banking experience with the last 14 years in Terrace. investors Group Financial Service Inc. has more than 3,600 consuitants across Canada and more than 38 billion in assets under management and has been serving investors for over 70 yers. Cheryl welcomes her friends and acquaintances to call her at (250) 635-0601 iG; ErIv@SEOTS toll Free 1-800-764-1777 Group’ Terrace, BC Chicken Legs Back Attached, Seasoned, Individually Quick Frozen. Sold in a 4 kg box for only %. 80. WiMIT Wo. eee SAVE at least 0 33¢i/lb. Safeway Club Price lb. 1,70/kg Rae . New Crop. Russet _Potatoes Product of U.S.A, No. 1 Grade. SAVE at least $2.00 199, u/. Club Price TAE GLACEY N 7 2 Or Lemonade. Or Bel-air, Assorted flavours, 355 mL. FIRST FIVE - Combined varieties, SAVE at least $1.95 on five Safeway Club Price Te Lucerne Ice a Safeway Club Price Cream Assorted varieties, 2 Litre. FIRST TWO - Combined varieties. Mi at least 5.10 on two “SWE at si FREE least $2.38 BUY ONE GET ONE Safeway Club Price Mini carnations Growers Bunch, !