TERRACE MAY be small as cities go but it looms large when it comes to the availability of specialized medical services. There are now more specialists located in the city than there are general practitioners. That’s due in part to the city acling as the regional ceulre for the northwest but it’s also the result of an aggressive recruiting campaign by the local medical services community. Michael Leisinger, the chief execulive officer of the Terrace Regional] Health Cate Society, mns through a list of specialist additions since the turn of the decade. “We didn’t have an ear, nose and throat specialist and now we do. We didn’ have two anesthetists wilh standing in the royal college and now we do.”’ “We had one radiologist and now we have two, We had one internist and now we have two, We had one pediatrician and now we have two. We had one obstetrician and now we have two. We had one psychiatrist and now we have three. We have a neurologist now and we have a dermatologist.”’ Rounding off Leisinger’s list is a podiatrist. It all adds up to Terrace having the largest amount of specialists in any cily in the north with the exception of Prince George. ‘You'd have to bead south to Kamloops be- There’s been growth in health care THE SHAPE and scope of health care services in Terrace has changed and expanded since the late 1980s. “You plod ahead each day and think you’re not getting anywhere and then you look at what’s here now and you say, ‘*Wow. A lot has happened,’’ says Michael Leisinger, chief exec- utive officer of the Terrace Regional Health Care Society which runs Mills Memorial Hospi- tal and Terraceview Lodge. Aniong the list of accomplishments is the in- troduction of the diagnostic nuclear medicine unit at Mills. And a massive community effort to raise money and to lobby the provincial government resulted in the installation of the CT scan device at Mills. It’s helped cement Mills as a modem facility and has added te Terrace’s reputation as the ser- vice centre for the norlhwest. The early 1990s also featured an expansion of the extended care facility Terraceview Lodge. That expansion added 20 beds to the 56 there before, Further innovations to health care came when Boom in medical s is good news for the north fore you'd encounter the selection we have here,” said Leisinger, Assembling specialists is a delicate and com- plicated task as some can’t exist without having “ offers. And the challenge in the budget-strapped 1990s for the local medical communily is to retain whal’s here naw without having anybody leave and alter the collection of specialist ser- vices here now. Specialists, as with a growing number of other professionais, are leaving the city for the ad vantages of life in smaller centres. Dr. Geoff Appleton, the northern representa- tive to the B.C. Medical Association board, says there’s a very good reason why so many specialities here are paired up. ‘'Being the only specialist is extremely stress- ful from a lifestyle point of view. You won't find many peopte anymore willing ta be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week,”" he said. Having two of each kind also makes sense when it comes to specialists acting as a regional a former nurses’ residence on the grounds of Mills was renovated to become Sleeping Beauty Lodge. It’s designed as a place to stay for people who don't need to be hospitalized but who should be close to the services the hospital can provide. It’s particularly useful for people fram out of town, Money for this came from the province and it operates under the wing of the local Elks and Order of the Royal Purple. The lodge is working well in terms of helping ease the hospital’s tight budgel situalion and the need to cut down on patient slays. “TE it wasn’t there, our ulilization rate would be much different than il is,” said Leisinger. And there’s been progress in the altempt to provide services within the tight medical budgets. Mills, for instance, has cut by half the number of patient days fram five years ago, “We're continuing to provide the same ser- vices we did before,” noted Leisinger. ‘‘Day surgery is one of those areas we have ¢x- Work Ward, ROADS PARKING LOTS DRIVEWAYS QUALITY WOR — You Can ou deserve a chance to enjoy life. After all, life shouldn't be all work and no play. We're here to make all your paving needs a litile easier, Let us professionals serve your needs quickly and efficiently. So you have more time for yourself. pecialists Terrace Progress Edition 1997, February 26, 1997 - Page 5 service as the population of Terrace and sur- rounding area couldn't support both otherwise, Specialists also like to work with: those in’ ‘other fields so as not fo have to stray outside their own expertise and training. And general practitioners prefer lo work in places where there is a wide variety of specialists. “You get to what we like to call a critical mass,’ said Appleton of the specialist mix bere now. All told there are 22 full lime specialists in Terrace, plus a person who works half time. That's compared to having 15 general prac- litianers here, Of particular interest is having a neurologist and a pediatric psychiatrist. ‘You won't find these lypes of people anywhere else in a cily this size,”’ notes Appleton. Specialists, as with a growing number of other professionals, are leaving the city for the ad- vantages of life in smaller centres. *'They’re finding hey can live oulside of the city and still have fairly sophisticated medical back up,”’ said Appleton. The benefits to Terrace residents — and to northwesterners in general — of having a good collection of specialists here are many, he said. Not only is specialized tealment much closer at hand but residents are spared the expense of the plane fare south. THE STRENGTH of Terrace’s medical community is evident in the new medical centre. And that's Dr. Geoff Appleton standing in front of the Park Ave, complex. He says the growth of specialty services here is due to a number of key factors. S panded.”’ Another new service to the hospital is teleradiology, a system which sends and receives x-ray and other images along phone lines to northwestern hospitals. The idea is thal physicians in smaller com- munities such as Stewarl have more immediate access to services for their paticnts by connect- ing to radiolagists in larger places. And coming soon is the gathering of in-patient and out-patient psychiatric care services on the grounds of Mills. Money for this comes from the pravince’s plan to close down larger facilities on the lower mainland in favour of placing services closer to where people live. At Mills, that means improvements to the ex- isting psychiatric ward and construction of new bed space, This also involves moving people now at the aging Osborme Home residence to the new eed facilities. “There's as much political will and money committed to this project as I've ever seen be- fore,’’ notes Leisinger of this project, 16s so easy being greene Before it was hip to be green, Ducks Unlimited Canada was commited to saving habitat from coast ta coast: Now that baing green i everyone's concem, our fob i5 sore important than ever. 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