An organization advocating for better health care north of the Malahat says two years have passed since the B.C. NDP promised a patient tower and cardiovascular intervention centre at Nanaimo General Hospital, but concrete plans have yet to materialize.<\/p>\n
The Fair Care Alliance is hosting a health care forum this week to call attention to the issue and it says the provincial election is providing the perfect backdrop.<\/p>\n
Watch the story below:<\/p>\n
The Nanaimo Regional General Hospital property is a busy place with crews building a new BC Cancer Centre and a nearby parking area. But with the region\u2019s aging population, the Fair Care Alliance, an advocacy group, says work on other significant health care needs seem to have stalled.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want immediate attention to the cardiovascular intervention centre. That\u2019s a project that can be built out in three years and we need the province to identify that, recognize it, and make it happen immediately,\u201d said Donna Hais, chair of the Alliance. \u201cThat\u2019s a phase of our overall acute care campus construction that leads into the tower. We\u2019d like to see a tower there in eight years and we believe all of that is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. David Forrest, president of the hospital\u2019s Medical Staff Association, says the lack of cardiac staffing and equipment is becoming a real emergency.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seeing patients who are suffering, dying or having serious harm every week in Nanaimo and this is a problem in terms of access for the residents of central\/north Island; that\u2019s 500,000 people who do not have access to this critical service,\u201d said Forrest.<\/p>\n
The Fair Care Alliance is hosting a forum at the Vancouver Island Conference Centre Sept. 24 at 5 pm. They\u2019re urging municipal candidates, elected officials and anyone who cares about health care in the region to attend.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo join us for information around health care, how it\u2019s structured, who pays and who actually has a say in what happens to those dollars,\u201d said Hais.<\/p>\n