The BC NDP have announced plans to provide funding to bring an MRI to Chilliwack if they form government in the upcoming election.<\/p>\n
The announcement was made by Kelli Paddon, MLA candidate for Chilliwack-Cultus Lake, during a press conference on Wednesday (Oct. 21) at Sardis Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cA BC NDP government has committed $8 million to making sure that Chilliwack is going to get its MRI,\u201d Paddon said. \u201cThis is just one piece of the partnership. This work started locally with donors, with incredible work by the city and foundations to advocate, to make sure that this happened and to make sure that people could access this health care close to home.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnybody who has ever needed to have a diagnostic appointment and drive outside of Chilliwack knows that there\u2019s a wait. There\u2019s a lot of logistics to work on. Maybe you have to arrange for family care, maybe you don\u2019t drive yourself and you have to arrange transportation, but even in the event that the trip itself is not a huge barrier, there\u2019s still the wait. There\u2019s the time and the worry and the fact that your whole family, it\u2019s not just you, is waiting for the answer, what\u2019s next, what\u2019s coming.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving an MRI in Chilliwack is critical and I am so proud to be part of a team that\u2019s making that investment and that has committed to Chilliwack being on that list to receive that MRI.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paddon was joined in the announcement by Mayor Ken Popove; mayor-elect Jason Lum; Leanna Kemp, executive director of the Fraser Valley Health Care Foundation; and Harry Geddes, a director for the Chilliwack Hospital Foundation.<\/p>\n
Popove said that the \u201ccommunity stepped up to the table to get the ball rolling\u201d on bringing the MRI to the city. He said that transportation between cities for those who might need an MRI is a big roadblock.<\/p>\n
\u201cBack in 2021 and 2025, when we had our floods, people couldn\u2019t get to the Abbotsford Hospital, so it\u2019s vitally important to have this piece of technology in our backyard,\u201d Popove said.<\/p>\n
Lum, who also serves as liaison for the Chilliwack Hospital Foundation, said he had a \u201cfirst-hand look\u201d at the work that has been done by the foundation and private donors to fund the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat speaks to what we know to be true about this community, about how charitable the community is, about how when there\u2019s a need, they step up. They don\u2019t wait for the government to step in. They step up and help fill that need,\u201d Lum said.<\/p>\n
He said he and other advocates for the project were concerned that it was not a priority when they received no response from inquiries.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe work is being done here. I know the health authority has done a lot of work. I know our private donors have helped drive that along as well, the hospital foundations have helped drive that along,\u201d Lum said. \u201cSo to see the province come up and step up as a partner, I think this is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lum emphasized that he wants to see construction begin on the project before the end of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe longer we delay, the longer we have challenges with supply chain, or with construction costs escalating, or it getting caught up in cabinet or one ministry or another \u2026 That\u2019s not fair to the donors. It\u2019s not fair to the people who have committed money,\u201d Lum said. \u201cIn fact, the thing that I\u2019m concerned about is that these donors were very patient and very generous, but their patience has a limit. So, when they\u2019re putting millions of dollars on the table, to make them wait three, four, five years is unacceptable.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I want to really key in on the timeline that we\u2019re hoping to see this completed in. A lot of the work has been completed. They\u2019ve got a location at the hospital. They\u2019ve done the study. They\u2019ve done the work. The next piece is the bureaucratic piece and that\u2019s the piece where I\u2019m confident that seeing this amount of money put on the table, the money from the donors, the money from the foundations, that they\u2019ll find a way to grease the wheels and get this thing moving much faster than you traditionally would. So, that\u2019s the challenge that we put out to anyone who forms government, quite frankly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kemp said the work on the project first began a couple of years earlier, when she was director and then chair of the Chilliwack Hospital Foundation.<\/p>\n
\u201cJason said it best, when the community comes together and we want to do something, we get it done. When the Chilliwack Hospital Foundation approached the Fraser Valley Health Care Foundation, it was a no-brainer,\u201d Kemp said.<\/p>\n
She said this project was also brought together through partnerships with the Fraser Valley Regional District and Fraser Health.<\/p>\n
\u201cDr. Kevin Enns, the director of Medical Imaging (at Fraser Health), was a big part of this project,\u201d Kemp said. \u201cWhen it was first presented to us, it was three phases, and he was extremely helpful in getting us through phase one and phase two in a very timely and efficient manner. So that piece was crucial.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been stuck on phase three for a little bit. So, this is extremely exciting that this is happening today. I\u2019m just incredibly grateful to be able to stand here in all of the roles that I\u2019ve held to this date, but the foundations do great work for our community and this is just a testament to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Geddes thanked Paddon for the promise and provided background information on how the private donors approached the Chilliwack Hospital Foundation to offer the funding.<\/p>\n
He said one donor said they would donate the funds for an MRI in May of 2024 and 12 months later a second individual did the same. He said neither of the donors knew each other or had heard about the plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just unbelievable how all of a sudden we have a good portion of our funds already raised \u2026 the funds, as far as we\u2019re concerned are there,\u201d Geddes said. \u201cWe just need the ability of the Fraser Health and government to say \u2018Yes, we\u2019re going to go ahead with this thing because using the lack of funds as an excuse is not an excuse.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement sent to the press, Todd Harvey, chair of the Chilliwack Hospital Foundation said, \u201cAn MRI at home means people won\u2019t have to travel out of town for a scan they need, often while they are sick and worried. An MRI in Chilliwack will also benefit the whole region by easing the pressure on other facilities, so more patients across the valley can be seen sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking to the delays of the project by the BC NDP, Paddon said that a lot of the work she had done was when she was MLA, from 2020 to 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2024 I was not re-elected. We were still engaged in the work to push this forward and make it happen. Unfortunately our local representation wasn\u2019t able to move the ball forward at all,\u201d Paddon said. \u201cFor my own part, part of the reason that I\u2019m running again right now is because I know how much we can get done. We brought in hundreds of millions of dollars worth of investment to Chilliwack, while I was serving as MLA. Not because of me, because of the collective and the work we were able to do together with a strong representative that shows up and fights for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the end of her statement, Paddon said, \u201cIt\u2019s really important to remember that we\u2019re talking about a machine, but actually we\u2019re talking about people. We\u2019re talking about the people whose lives and access to health care here in our community will improve. We\u2019re talking about the people that will work the machine to support the diagnostics right here in Chilliwack and we\u2019re talking about all the incredible people who came together and to push.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am so proud to be a part of a government that understand that we have to make these investments in health care. We cannot help our communities and we can\u2019t make things better by cutting health care.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is critical to my mind that you don\u2019t just have this announcement, that the follow through is there. Announcements don\u2019t help, but a commitment of this $8 million for an MRI in Chilliwack can change things for the seniors, for people who need it right here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Provincial election day is Oct. 24.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The BC NDP have announced plans to provide funding to bring an MRI to Chilliwack if they form…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":941582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,163792,87674],"class_list":["post-941581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-lower-mainland","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=941581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/941582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=941581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=941581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=941581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}