7 Medical Briefs Nurses coming BARRING ANY unforeseen paperwork problems, five nurses from the Phillipines now working in Libya should be here and working at Mills Memor- ial Hospital by spring. They were found through a Toronto recruiting ‘company and interviewed last month by telephone, says Dieter Kuntz, chief executive officer of the Terrace Area Health Council which runs Mills. “We desperately need them,” said Kuntz of the nurses. Mills has suffered through several years of - oecasional admittance restrictions because it didn’t have enough nurses to staff the number of beds it has. Attempts to recruit locally, provincially and na- tidnally failed to produce results, That’s not unus- ual as nurses are in a short supply acrass the coun- iry and in North America. The hospital so far has underspent its wage bud- get by more than $350,000, a sign of the shortage. ‘The nurses will be put to work in critical care areas such as emergency, labour delivery and in- tensive care. Five fulltime nurses alone represent more than $500,000 in wages and benefits, said Kuntz. Recruiting costs soar FINDING SPECIALISTS AND and nurses has put the health council’s recruiting budget in the red to the tune of $180,000, “We've had to spend money on locums (specialists here on temporary. duty) and we’re paying to advertise in various medical publications and that gets expensive,” noted Kuntz. The city is short three psychiatrists and one obstetrician/gynecologist. An internal medicine specialist will also be needed with the pending de- parture of Dr. Michael Kenyon. Also needed are | two general practitioners. Psych help promised HELP IS also coming from out of town to re-open Mills Memorial's now-closed 10-bed psychiatric ward, An overseas psychiatrist recruited for Prince Ru- pert has agreed to come to Terrace until a perma- nent clinical director is found. The ward’s permanent clinical director left last fall and the last temporary one left the end of 2000 at which time the ward was closed. Terrace and Area Health Council chief exec- utive officer Dieter Kuntz welcomed the assis- tance. “Psychiatry is a regional service and we ap- preciate having another health authority involved,” he said, _ He did caution that the pyschiatrist must still “pass immigration and certification requirements. People requiring psychiatric help have either “at Mills or have Héensent outside Pi0n, - The psychiatrist could be in Terrace as early as next month. sway THE GARDEN SHED “Pon fomet the GRAHAM AVE ee ") A) MEDEEK AVE Gar ert Shed: | acanave 6033 Graham Ave,, Terrace Ph: 638-7697 © Fax: 638-7671 Dairy Queen Groundworks Gourmet House Bear Country Inn Chop Suey Garden Delaney’s Fast Food - Flight Deck Restaurant “Kentucky Fried Chicken -Lucky Garden Restaurant “Mt. Layton Hotsprings Dining P&I Fish & Chips Polly's Cafe *. Don Diegos ’ Blackstones ‘Tim Hortons . McDonald's ~ Haryana's ‘Hava Java - Hot House Mr. Mikes A&W - Anka’s Denny’s Pizza Hut _ Subway "Brought ta you by North West Community Health Service eokerrree at health delay . im acute care beds; there’s -been admitted to the maing| nymedicg ces. W di. ra Ah Seniesa» The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, January 17, 2001 - AP MLA irritated SKEENA NDP MLA Helmut Giesbrecht says he’s frus- trated in his attempts to find $400,000 to free up acute care beds at Mills Memoria! Hospital, The plan is to create an | eight-bed alternate care bed § ward at the hospital for el- § derly patients now in acute § care beds. These patients are § awaiting rooms at long term residential care facilities and don’t require acute care. But because they are a lack of space at the hos- pital for people who do re- quire acute care. It’s also expensive because they are being taken care of by nurses who are in a short supply, An alternative care ward . would have lesser-paid care Melmut Giesbrecht aides taking care of the el- derly patients. Giesbrecht was initially heartened last month with an The biggest contribution to any RRSP is good advice a Fred Lindsay" ~ Successful RRSP planning depends on making choices that match — your long term goals.As a Clarica . Agent, I'll talk about your retirement goals, and then heip you put together an RRSP strategy that helps you. achieve them. Skeena Mall, Terrace BC, Tel 635-2387 Fax 635-6532 CLARICA’ ‘Investment and insurance solvtions-Since 1870 woh Troderach of Carica Life Insurance Company Resresenting Clore Ls Losuxonce Company ond “Choice Invest Ine, announcement that 2000 multi level care beds would be made available over the next three years. Even though just 17 of those beds were assigned to the northwest, Giesbrecht began pursuing health ministry officials to obtain some of the money for those beds for the eight-bed alternate care ward at Mills. His idea is to at least get the eight-bed care ward up and running while planning begins to put those 17 multi- _ level care beds at existing northwestern long term resi- dential facilities. “But I’m getting mixed signals about this — about when the operating money is supposed to flow,” Gies- brecht said last week, “I’m being told the operating money might not start to flow this year and that’s crap. I’ve told the ministry that’s not acceptable.” “The idea is to get some relief now and that’s the push,” Giesbrecht added. 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