For Victoria’s sake, let the police do their jobs
Re: “248-time offender cited as mayors seek crackdown,” April 27.
I am an 81-year-old woman. On May 15, 2019 I was brutally assaulted in front of the Bay on Douglas Street at 12 noon.
Judge Mayland McKimm sentenced the 37-year-old man who spat on me, threw me to the ground and kicked me in the stomach, to 12 months in jail. He served 191 days.
He was then placed on three-year probation.
According to the court, the man had a “serious criminal record” including several convictions for assault causing bodily harm. Most of his offences were committed while on probation.
I regularly get calls from Victim Services that the man who beat me is on the lam again, and police are supposedly looking for him.
Attorney General David Eby has no clue what is going on. Our streets are not safe. We do not have a vibrant downtown. Victoria has become a haven for criminals and our police should be left to do their jobs.
Supportive housing, free everything, and counselling are not helping the situation. We need more jails and a government with gonads.
Hennie Stibbe
Saanich
Horgan should get mad about health care
Re: “Sparks fly at legislature over doctor shortage,” April 26.
So, as our medical system in B.C. is cratering before our eyes, as has been predicted for years, if not decades, Premier John Horgan becomes irate while defending the performance of his government in addressing the crisis.
Perhaps if he had shown as much passion for correcting the problem in the first place, as he did for defending the poor performance of his government, we could be a bit more sympathetic.
After all, his government was quick in recently contravening the law by retroactively paying out bonuses to his ministers who did not meet the financial thresholds of their ministry budgets. All this while he points his fingers at the federal government for more funding. Symbolically, at least, these bonus funds to his ministers could have been directed to the Ministry of Health budget, rather than to the pockets of ministers not meeting the mandated ministry budget performance.
One can wonder if the provincial MLAs had the same medical coverage and access to family doctors, that the rest of the population has to endure, that there might have been a more rapid and thorough attempt to address the medical crisis.
I am glad that Horgan had a quick treatment for his recent cancer. I wish him continued rapid recovery. However, as a recovering cancer patient myself, who had to wait in line for treatment (thankfully successful), I have to wonder if “special” treatment was given to him to move to the front of the line, and if so, does this also apply to all MLAs? Do MLAs get access to family doctors that the general public do not get?
A quick search on Google regarding B.C. MLA medical plans shows that the terms of coverage can only be accessed by using passwords. So much for “open government” for the medical benefits for MLAs funded by B.C. taxpayers.
As George Orwell famously said in his book Animal Farm: “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” It appears that B.C. provides a good example of this philosophy.
Peter Davis
James Bay
Telus health system was quick and easy
Our doctor retired about 10 years ago and of course it is not possible to sign up with a replacement. We have tried unsuccessfully multiple times without even getting close to finding one.
As we are both over 60 the need for a doctor increases with every passing year.
I had a recurrence of a painful condition that would have seen me chase around clinics getting turned away and wasting fuel and time and being unable to see a doctor, or go and wait for four-plus hours in the ER.
I used the Telus system and had an appointment within 15 minutes of the onset of the condition and had picked up my prescription in under two hours.
This saved me a lot of discomfort and removed the need to be in a packed waiting room with lots of sick people for several hours.
There is clearly a place in our health-care system for this to take a lot of more minor health problems away from a system that is already showing how it is not able to cope with the needs of the general population.
Steve Woods
Victoria
Praise for Telus system goes against experience
The recent piece by physician leads at Telus Health (or more likely their public relations team) is shameful spin that flies in the face on all experience.
Nobody is questioning virtual care and telehealth. People are questioning episodic care, especially by providers far removed from patients.
I analyzed the referrals from Telus Health and similar services sent to my wife’s specialist practice. They flout all standards, are often inappropriate, and at best a waste of everyone’s time. (Details at https://mhnav.com/bad-referrals/)
Dr. Daisy Dulay recently discussed the negative impacts of episodic care as provided by these services, and her experience echoes ours.
A postscript to the above analysis. Three weeks ago, we received a referral from Telus Health for a patient outside our well-documented age criteria. Within an hour, we’d sent back a rejection note to that effect.
This week we received another request on the patient, who lives in Victoria and was referred by a Telus Health doctor in 91原创. They asked for our help tracking down other places they could refer her, given how “time sensitive” it was.
Is this an example of how they are “harnessing the power of technology with innovative solutions”?
Mark Roseman
Victoria
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