Editor:
In response to the letter to the editor submitted by Paula Van Tine published in the Lakes District News on May 30, 2012, I would like to express my support for the Burns Lake Medical Clinic Society (BLMCS).
I was a patient of two of the best MD’s I have ever known, specifically Dr.’s Purdon and Pretorius, both of whom have left the community.
They were the progressive type of doctors that the BLMCS wishes to recruit. After Dr. Pretorius left for Kamloops, I had my medical file transferred to the Southside Health and Wellness Centre so that I could use their nurse practitioners as my primary heath provider as I was fed up with the Burns Lake Medical Clinic.
The Village of Burns Lake and surrounding area deserves a lot better in the way of health services.
It’s wonderful that a new hospital will be built, but unless the attitudes of many health professionals and management changes, you will have nothing but a new building with fancy equipment. People matter first, then facilities.
My wife, a nurse with 30 years of experience in operating room, intensive care, emergency room and other areas of expertise would love to work for this new clinic, or in this area for that matter, but due to financial constraints, time frame and a lack of support from the existing medical community, will be working permanently elsewhere where her skills will be appreciated.
We have lived in the Burns Lake area for over nine years and she has worked a total of five months in the immediate area.
Burns Lake, you deserve much better.
You are losing medical professionals who get that it is the patient/client who is the priority, not the whims of so-called management types or my 'poor wallet' types.
Historically the behaviour reflecting the values of the local medical community are suspect, given that health is comprised of 'caring' professions.
I hope for the sake of the community that we will be leaving behind that the BLMCS will be a roaring success and that some other much needed changes take place.
Dave Williams