AB - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, March 18, 1998

Docs, health

council at odds

over how to get more money

THE TWO groups with pri-
mary responsibility for
health care in the city have
yet to come together in the
effort to find more moncy
for Mills Memorial Hospi-
tal,

Doctors and the Terrace
and = Area = Conumunity
Health Council, which mins
Mills, met last week and
plan to meet again. '

Both groups agree the hos-
pital needs more money but
disagree on how to tackle
the provincial government.

Health council chair
Larisa Tarwick says that for
the first time, the hospital is
gathering statistics to show
the province it offers ser-
vices which cost more than
what the budget it receives
will cover.

And she says the province
is now at least listening.

“We're trying to build a
case, and I can speak for the
whole board, we’re working
on getting results and we
think we.can get some help
with the new budget,’ she
said.

The council asked for, and
was granted, a visil from a

health ministry official to —

Dump
costs
known

IT WILL cost about the
same amount to fix up the
Thomhill dump as it will to
build a new one near Onion
Lake, according to a new
study.

Regional district staff
have just completed a sum-
mary of site investigations
from the. tyo locations. Both
are being: -cofisidered for a

potential larger “sile..to' re:
place the inadequate Terface:

and Thornhill duiips.

“We 'féel’comfortable that
we could develop a site at
either —- location,”
regional district manager of
works and services Roger
Tooms. ‘‘We'd like to con-
tinue looking at both op-
tions.” |

Tooms says preliminary
findings indicate that the
costs of developing the two
locations are similar,
depending on who uses the
Onion Lake site. ,

Greater Terrace could
comfortably use an im-
proved Thornhill site for
decades, That appears to be
the cheapest option if the
expanded landfill only
received Terrace-area gar-
bage.

But if Terrace were to join
with Kitimat in developing
and using the Onion Lake
site, the price for that option
would drop considerably.

“Tf Kitimat were to come
into Onion Lake, we're
looking at comparable costs
to if Greater Terrace used
the Thornhill site,’’ Tooms
says.

He points out that one of
the main reasons the
regional district. = con-
centrated on finding a land-
fill sile to the south of Ter-
race was to allow Kitimat
the option to get on board,
either immediately or in the
future.

Long term, the Onion
Lake site would likely still
have slightly greater costs
because garbage would have
to be transported there.

Roger Tooms «.

says

“We're tired of playing the political
game with Victoria and sending stats
back and forth. You need a two by four to
deal with Victoria, not a bunch of

statistics.”

“He agreed that we do
have some challenges,”
Tarwick said.

But the problem, added
Tarwick, is that the health
council is dealing with some
issues that are beyond its
control.

One of those is the prob-
lem in finding specialists to
replace those which are
leaving.

Another is the lack of pop-
ulation in the northwest to
justify the kinds of specialist
and medical services that
make sense for the people
who live here.

“Looking at levels judged
on a per thousand {popula-
tion) is a very artificial way
of providing services, We
need flexibility with the
budget and that’s what
we're working on,’’ Tar-
wick said.

But Dr. Geoff Appleton,
the northwest representative

on the B.C, Medical Associ-
alion, says arguing with
statistics won’t work.

‘We're tired of playing
the political game with Vic-
toria and sending stats back
and forth,’ said Appelton
who attended last week’s
meeting with the health
council.

**¥ou need a two by four
to deal with Victoria, not a
bunch of statisties,”’

“We've agreed to dis-
agree on the tactics.”’

Appleton said local doc-
tors might be more suited to
do battle with the provincial
goverment than the health
board or hospital adminis-
trators.

“We're not in danger for
our jobs. We don’t work for
the provincial government,”
he said.

But Tarwick cautions that
doctors, who are in a sepa-
rate battle over fees with the

HHO

Geoff Appleton

province, have their own
agenda at work,
“They want more money

. and more surgical time,”’

she said.

The same kind of agenda
is at work with health care
unions who are also in ne-
gotiations with the provin-
cial government, Tarwick
added,

‘There are issues being
played ont on a different
field,’’ she said,

Although the doctors and
the health council have
agreed to meet again, just
who will be at that session is
in doubt.

Doctors want nurses and
Terrace city council at an
open session to air out prob-
lems.

The health council doesn’t
want the council involved
and prefers to discuss the is-
sues behind closed doors.

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