The mayor of Ashcroft is glad that B.C.’s Health Minister has come to see the issues in their local hospital first-hand.
Barbara Roden says the visit from Adrian Dix was last minute, with his staff calling after 1 p.m. to say they would be there at 2:30 p.m., after leaving Kamloops.
“So I was in town, was able to get over there. He went for a tour, was able to see all the facilities at the hospital. Met one of the residents of long term care who’s a 101 years old – but confided to the Health Minister that she wasn’t 101, she felt no more than 65. So that was good.”
She says hospital staff gave him a lot to think about.
“I heard one of the staff members talking about the burnout of people at the hospital. I think he got a full picture of the challenges we’re facing here in Ashcroft,” Roden says.
“He didn’t really have anything concrete to offer us. Really, from my point of view, I’m glad that he was able to meet some of the people and hear first-hand about the challenges we’re facing.
“We expect to be hearing from him soon about our meeting at UBCM and that would be an opportunity for us on council to go back to him and reiterate what we talked about at UBCM and some of the things we touched on during his meeting on Tuesday, and just making sure we keep this on the front burner.”
Dix had said in June he had planned to visit the Ashcroft Hospital in the coming months.
Had a chance to tour #Ashcroft Hospital & Community Health Care Centre. Met w dedicated health care workers whose hard work keeps ppl in the community healthy- gratitude 🙏. Our gov’t is committed to providing the very best health care services for #BC. @Interior_Health #bchealth pic.twitter.com/WFVeFvAycf
— Adrian Dix (@adriandix) October 2, 2019
Editor’s Note: This story previously stated that members of village council were included in the meeting, however councillors weren’t notified of the Health Minister’s visit beforehand and were not part of it.
