The president of the Ashcroft Health and Wellness Coalition says a visit by the Health Minister last week was “a waste of time.”

Sheila Corneillie says she hoped the local coalition and many others would’ve been involved when Adrian Dix came to the Ashcroft Hospital.

“His visit to the hospital truly was an absolutely waste of time. The ER was closed, there wasn’t an RN in sight. We’re happy he talked to the residential care because they’ve got their own challenges. But that wasn’t why he was there,” Corneillie says, adding that she thinks the visit was more of a photo op.

“It wasn’t a meaningful visit to just invite one person from our community, the Ashcroft mayor, when we have three municipalities within this cachement area, he didn’t invite the others. No members of council were invited, our MLA lives here, she wasn’t invited. We weren’t invited. Our RNs who work there weren’t invited. I just don’t see how it was meaningful.”

Corneillie says the coalition brought a petition to the Health Ministry in the spring asking for 24-7 staffing to be restored in the local emergency room.