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We need more beds

Editor: Carl Olsen’s letter to Coast Reporter July 4 is right on the mark concerning St. Mary’s Hospital.

Editor:

Carl Olsen’s letter to Coast Reporter July 4 is right on the mark concerning St. Mary’s Hospital.

Maybe rename it “inadequate hospital” or “half-a-hospital”? Surely we need the citizens of the Sunshine Coast to step up and make it clear to Vancouver Coastal Health that it is beyond the time when there should be a new hospital planned that would double the capacity of the incapable new wing. Clearly we should have had a 75-bed hospital five or 10 years ago. We need more beds and more staff and more specialists.

Twice in the last few weeks I have had to go off-Coast for medical services not available here. Every time I go off-Coast, I meet other locals who are off-Coast for medical reasons. Please communicate your horror stories to VCH and the Ministry of Health.

In the short term (10 years) may we encourage VCH to refurbish and reopen as many beds as possible in the “old” St. Mary’s Hospital?

Bob Paulin, Sechelt