| More

i

beds

| needed at

| Mills,

HAVING JUST 25 beds ‘officially approved on the “main . floor of Mills. Memorial _ Hospital is a‘ “ioke,” says a

medical. ‘services

local physician.

>» Demand driven by il

ness, the area’s population,

. increasing numbers of el- ' derly people and the hospi-

tal’s all-but official status as‘a regional facility makes

, - that’.number ‘unworkable, - says Dr. Geoff Appleton,

who also sits on’ the board

of the B.C. Medical Asso--

ciation. - “When you talk to the

ca local docs, they say 40 beds

is a more realistic mimber,” says ‘Appleton.

___ As it is, health care of--- “ ficials have pretty much |:

discarded that 25 number

"and have moved to 30 beds ~ . “in what they call’ an “oper-— . ating level.” Yet there are’ -

times when that 30 bed to- tal is exceeded ‘and daily

_admission counts hover in — the 38 range. A consistent. challenge facing Mills is .. _ in the number. of elderly. ‘patients it-has who don’t really need the services of.

a hospital but who have no-'

_ where else to go. , - “Thad an elderly patient

_.in Mills, a woman, who spent a” year there before. ' going to Terraceview and * —

that was just.a few weeks

: ago,” said Appleton’ re-) >» cently. * °

‘He added that he: and other doctors recognize the

- ultimate: ability of . Mills

to provide beds rests ‘with having enough nurses and

_ other health care workers

to. take care of patients.

The lack of beds then af- fects its emergency’ room as people are kept there until space opens up on the hospital’s floor, he said, _ And that, in turn, affects the ability of the ER to pro- vide services.

“It’s been growing in the last couple of years, It’s not all that unusual to have someone in ER for 24 hours until a bed opens

up,’ said Appleton. « .~

“Recently, when Apple-

ton was on call, five ER ©

spaces were taken up. by

people who. ‘should have.

had a hospital bed. . “That left just one room where all of the people

_coming into ER had to

be examined: It’s a major problem and it is growing and it’s not unique. It’s not

-a problem with the ER. It’s a problem because there

aren’t enough beds,” he said.

“People may think that

because this is a small

"hospital that we don’t see -

the kind of people as does a large hospital, that °we don’t see the tough stuff. But that’s not true. We see the same kind of people as anywhere else, not just

“those with coughs and.

colds.”

“Tf, you have your ER full of people waiting for a bed and then an emergency

happens, then you’re really —

in trouble,” said Appleton: Local health care of-

ficials say the ER at Mills ©

has been getting busier with 19,905 visits between April 1, 2005 to March 31,

2006 compared to 18,841 |

visits the year before. “These . visits would

include everything from —

emergencies: to scheduled visits such as having casts removed or for IVs,” says Northern Health Authority official Rowena Holoien.

In that same period, ad-

missions from ER to the hospital itself. declined from 1,334 between April 1, 2004 to March 31, 2005 to 1,078 from April 1, 2005 to March 31 of this year. But Holoien said these

\

main medical

loc

kinds of stats are too gen-

eral and don’t tell the full . .. Story of the level of activity 7

within the ER or the result-

_ing impact on the hospital.

That’s changing - this year because Mills is in-

‘troducing a more detailed © Stats program, which will.

measure not only the medi- cal state of a person com-

-ing into the ER.but the time. it takes for that’person to ‘receive treatment.

VISIT YOUR CHRYSLER «

Wise customers read the fine print: *,

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, July 19, 2006 - A114

"Busted ts”

NANCY HOPKINS, owner of Golddiggers Flea Market, holds a rack slick sto- len from her store last'October and later recovered by police. She ‘says Ter- |’ race RCMP forwarded charges to prosecutors twice but both times they were rejected even though she believes the culprit was. caught red- handed. She. * taped this front store “window after. would- be thieves attempted’a break-in

ore)

over the, Canada Day long weekend... _ MARGARET SPEIRS PHOTO

- is extremely proud of our graduating students

of the 2005-2006 school year. Not only do our _ students face the same challenges as in-school students, but they must also be self-motivated, disciplined, very well organized and able to

- work independently. Our students’ abilities have been recognized by a number of ‘substantial University awards and scholarships.

We would like,to offer our congratulations . _ to the following students: ;

Sarah Hudson ~ Graduated with Honours

Kaleigh Allen , Katherine Ames Ben Brown _ ,

- Benjamin Brown

Angela Chapman Brandon Craig Tora deMedeiros >

Lauren Edgar - - Dentin Grant

“Candice Green

Ashley. Hershey —

Laurie Koch

Jeff Mohler

North Coast Distance Education School |

Clancy Petersen - 4 ‘Laura Reimche 4) Holly Robinson Sasha Rochon ' Robyn Scofield . _ John Shaws 3 8 _< Christina. Sivyer soe - Thomas Stewart, — Jared Webb ° Coe _ cs Kimberly Webb ao ; Natasha Wolker 7 Mark Zarvie .

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