Everyone needs to be accountable
Re: “The demise of common sense in health care,” commentary, Feb. 8.
I support this commentary by an ER doctor. Is our common sense dwindling? Is there a “me first” movement that is pervading our society and takes precedence over being considerate of other people’s needs?
I agree we the people need to be accountable and understand how our actions, decisions and choices affect everything.
J.T. Gibbs
Victoria
Understand how your body works
Re: “The demise of common sense in health care,” commentary, Feb. 8.
Unfortunately the issues listed are all too common for anyone working in health care.
It will not be an easy fix, but as it is, better education for Canadians is paramount. Perhaps less time wasted in school might go a long way to achieve this purpose.
Maybe if patients understood how their bodies work, they might be less inclined to waste a clinician’s time, and their own.
Dealing with mental-health issues, and also the sense of entitlement, would help unclog the emergency room.
One option to control this behaviour is to build a separate facility next to the ER which would be staffed with GPs, hospitalists and nurses to quickly assess patients, and treat them accordingly.
This would not be simple triage, but actual care would be obtained. Emergencies would be attended to in the ER and any others would be simply be seen to in the urgent care clinic.
J.M. Mercer
Nanaimo
Emergency room is for emergencies
Re: “The demise of common sense in health care,” commentary, Feb. 8.
Kudos to the emergency room physician who had the courage to tell it like it is: Entitled patients showing up in emergency rooms without having any good reason to be there, demanding services they don’t need and complaining about doctors who try to reason with them.
If you have a long-standing condition or minor illness, it can be appropriately dealt with by your doctor or a clinic or the very helpful nurse line.
The emergency room is not a drop-in clinic, nor a replacement for your family doctor. It should be reserved for true emergencies, and when the public abuse this, they selfishly put others at risk.
Please show some care for others and for the beleaguered staff. Don’t add to the problems in our health-care system.
Ingrid Olson Mercer
Victoria
Better ways to treat addiction
A Feb. 3 headline stated that the leader of the B.C. Liberal party had a $1.5-billion prescription for access-to-all addiction recovery.
Above that story, Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog, a former NDP MLA, commenting on vandalism and other violence associated with drug use, stated that “some people need involuntary care” and “What we have now is not working.” Decriminalization of drug possession was blamed in a letter a few days later.
The evidence that this is so is overwhelming. Deaths associated with drug overdose have risen from 200 per annum 10 years ago to 6,000-plus in the past two years.
The practice of treating addicts by feeding their habit is both counter-intuitive and very expensive.
As a long-retired elder physician and former nicotine addict (reformed for 47 years), it is clear to me that the only person who can “cure” an addict is the addicts themselves, often with the help of other addicts.
There is certainly evidence to support this belief.
A treatment centre near London, England, was treating substance abuse cases by group therapy at a time when the possession of drugs was criminal and public drunkenness was criminal.
This was private practice in the post-National Health Service era. The centre received referrals from all over the British Isles. It was claimed that they achieved their best results (70 per cent clear after two years) with clients who were referred either by the courts or their employers.
Such clinics exist in this province, one at least on the Island. It is the staff in those clinics who the governments should be consulting to develop a plan.
No drugs except to treat withdrawal, and then renew the person. Re-criminalization would be a prerequisite.
William Davis
Victoria
A library card helps with lost keys
Last Friday afternoon, I had the misfortune of losing my key ring while walking home from downtown. I can only assume that they fell from my pocket when I pulled my gloves out.
Someone found them and because we live in a great city like Victoria, and my library card was attached to the ring, they turned them into the library.
I received an email from the library on Monday that someone had turned them in and I could pick them up from the lost and found.
A huge thank you to the person who found my keys, and a great shout out to everyone at the Central Branch Library.
The takeaway here is that we do care for each other, and that everyone needs a library card.
Harris Schwartz
Victoria
Let other businesses sell to the people
Someone please tell Adrian Raeside (cartoon, Feb. 7) that he needs to draw his cartoons in an office downtown every day.
Then he can spend his hard-earned coin to buy $15 sandwiches and $5 coffees to prop up someone else’s business.
Here’s an idea: Maybe, just maybe, folks who work from places like Sidney or Saanich or Langford or Sooke are still spending their money, but spending it in their local communities.
Bruce Clarke
North Cowichan
Too many sea lions, so do what is needed
So many sea lions create the real problem for salmon and the killer whales that reply upon them.
As an avid fisherman in the Strait of Georgia growing up in the ʼ70s and ʼ80s, there was not a problem with the seals. Even fishing out in the Strait of Juan de Fuca back in the early 2000s, the seal population was minimal compared with today.
How many thousands of kilograms of salmon do these voracious eaters consume in a day? Ask any local fishermen about this and we all will agree upon the real problem … too many seals are the issue, not us fishermen who catch only a minimal amount in comparison.
It’s time for a cull, which should definitely include the First Nations as it has always been a part of their cultural fisheries and way of life hunting and gathering.
Please don’t hinder and ruin many fishing guides and businesses because of the killer whales’ salmon and food supply. It’s time to look at the seals as the main source of the problem.
Iain Glover
Family of fishermen
Victoria
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