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AG - ‘The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, duly 6, 2005.

TERRACE

) TANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988 ‘PUBLISHER: ROD LINK

Y APPARENTLY tT

-Kert INSISTING THE | WAR IN; TRAQ WAS

y wanoo! — THE LATEST MAD.

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i ~ learn.

ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. » V8G 5R2_ TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 + FAX: (250) 638-8432. WEB: www. terracestandard. com _ EMAIL: newsroom@terracestandard. com

~ Food fight

ON THE higher reaches of the local cable sys-, tem rests Channel 44, the‘Food Network. And on ‘that channel is Jamie Oliver, a British ‘chef who -is part celebrity, part show-off and wholly-bent.

~ on’changing what children eat in, that country’ Ss

~ schools. Mr. Oliver has zeroed i in on the British school

lunch program, a country-wide mandated effort to ensure that students get some sort of meal ev-

eryday.

Those who watch Mr. Oliver’ S Jamie’ S School. Dinners program. know that the school food pro- _ gram is on a ‘limited budget, hence a reliance on. . processed | meat and poultry products, french. fries and the like. ‘It’s not what Mr. Oliver and others

_. would call a sufficient daily diet for school chil- an dren. :

It’s an: interesting program to watch given ' ‘the

debate within our own school system when it

comes to providing food to our students.

- Thanks to provincial grants, local schools offer ~ breakfasts and lunches aimed primarily at lower income students but available to all. These meals are prepared with the help of nutritionists — no _ Surgery cereals, thanks very much. | -

-'The idea of school food programs is rooted in “nutrition as much as it is in the certainty that chil- dren with empty stomachs are in no condition to

“At the same time, declining and stressed edu- ‘cation budgets have all but eliminated spending

_on school ground equipment and other items that ~~ are not strictly part of a school’s core education

“needs.

Parent advisory councils at ‘primary and ele- mentary-schools have stepped into this breach by offering hot lunch programs with resulting profits being used for Playground equipment and other items.

The problem is that there is more profit to be made by selling the ubiquitous hot dog than there is by a selling a veggie wrap. And the less profit there is, the fewer items can be bought. It’s a vi-

cious. cycle as it puts schools and parents in the position of sacrificing nutrition to © generate profits

- to supplement school budgets. °

‘Secondary schools are in a somewhat similar

‘situation by installing vending machines food‘and _ drink with profits going to Support school activi-

ties.”

Clearly ‘this is a situation requiring action by

» the school district. The Abbotsford school district

‘is banning sales of pop to students during school ‘hours beginning this fall. The re-elected provin-

cial Liberal government has promised to rid junk

. food from schools within four. years.

~ While this school district has more than its fair

share of challenges, it will be far better for it to be ahead on this issue than to be behind.

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Serving the Terrace and Thomhill area. Published, on Wednesday of each week at 3210 Clinton Street, Terrace,

British Columbia, V8G 5R2.

Stories, photographs, illustrations, designs and typestyles in the Terrace Standard are the property of the copy- right holders, including Cariboo Press (1969) Ltd., its illustration repro services and advertising agencies. Reproduction in whole or in part, without written permission, is specifically prohibited.

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Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondents for their time and talents

A bare,

Cow I FROM REALLY? XAS 29 / HOW'D THEY

| WINNABLE.

Time tO get real with health care

/] LIKE the recent Supreiné

Court ruling out of Quebec on _ the role of private health care.

providers.

Not because. it may allow |

for an expanded role for the

private for profit side, but be- - cause it now forces on the -

nation a discussion on health.

care reform whether we like it © or not. . Already the usual cast of:

characters is out there trying to

_ get their sound bites out first... The media‘ is decrying this ~ decision’ as ‘the beginning of.

two-tier health care and the

‘end of the Publicly funded

system.

Public sector unions, vested interests and political parties across the spectrum are pull- ing out their personal favourite sound bites, that in most cases, grossly misrepresents the real- ity of this decision.

In this charged political at- mosphere. the debate is now upon us.

But let’s take a deep breath

before we plunge into the pool

and review some of the facts. Every one of the same vest-. ed interests groups and politi- cal parties has been calling for health care reform for some time. Yet it has been over two

and a half years since the Ro-:

manow royal commission and

the Kirby report were released .

and not a single meaningful

reform has been enacted. _ All of these groups continue

to refer to the Canadian health

‘care system as one of the best’

in the world, yet year after year

the United Nations has Canada

ROGER HARRIS

ranked 30th or worse. This result' comes even though we spend more .per

-capita than any other country

in the world.

We are one of only three nations in the world who have made the- purchase of medi-

cally necessary procedures il- .

legal. We share that distinction. with North Korea and Cuba

“We seem to he completely caught up in what the model of delivery should look like, not whether or not patient needs are -geing met.”

and J have seen no evidence to

make me think those should be .. vee tor paying for the much-needed

infrastructure and equipment

our two role models. . The continued reference to this decision leading to-a

‘two-tier system is even more

bizarre.

°

We have had a ‘two. and

possible three-tier system’ in

this country for decades. Ap-

' proximately 30 per cent of all

health care services delivered

in Canada have been provided * . by the private sector for a ‘long

time. The same. special interest

: groups that cry out’ against privatization have in fact been - some of the greatest users” of

this parallel system.

~ The whole’ argument that ‘the private for profit sector . should not have a place i in the

health care system | is equally ludicrous. ~

Private companies have had

a piece of the health care sys- tem forever. From the bricks and mortar that build hospitals to equipment, medication, uni-

forms, all are produced by the . private sector, that work on’a-

for profit basis. -The fear is that the private

delivery sector would -attract ©

health care professions away from the public system mak- ing en already critical shortage even worse.

That this shifting of person- nel would translate into grow-

ing wait times is a view not

shared by all health care pro- fessionals.

. Some doctors argue this.

movement will open up more facilities, which will lead to an increase in the number of sur-

- gical procedures performed.

-It would see the private sec-

freeing up public funding for direct services to patients. What is most interesting in

the debate to date has been the

* absence of the word patient.

We seem to be completely caught up in what the model of delivery should look like, not whether or not patient needs are being met.

We are constantly looking

‘at the American model and

phrasing this debate in, the. context of us versus them... « This argument completely

ignores the multiple systems

that are. in place in the more

than 30 countries who are con-.. ”

tinually getting better. patient

outcomes than us in Canada. §

and spending less money to i get there. .

‘Maybe one of the ways to truly get this debate rolling is to remove the groups who have a financial piece of the health care pie and finally..ask

“the patients of the system, ‘the public, what’s important © to

them. -

I hardly doubt that as an ambulance approaches the hospital door that the patient screams out “is this a private _ or public facility?”

My guess is they just want to know the service is there for them when they need it.

Stay tuned, this i is only the beginning. _

Roger Harris was ‘the Lib- eral Member of the Legislative Assembly for Skeena between 2001 and 2005. He was also the minister of state for forest operations. 7

The Terrace Standard wel- comes Mr. Harris as an oc-. casional contributor to these

" pages.

It’s rude to break appointments.

“EITHER MORE of us disre- ‘gard appointments or I’ve be- come more aware of the prob-

lem. Rarely a week goes by ©

without listening to someone’s

. frustrations with a No-Show... Let’s. say you make an ap-. pointment to see your doctor. .

Not always easy to do, .espe-

‘cially in flu season or around

‘a holiday. But after listening to your painful tale, “the re- ceptionist manages to squeeze

you in.

Yet the day of your appoint-

ment, you fail to show. You.

don’t even bother to let the

~ clinic know you'll be absent.

Nor do you phone to cancel well ahead so the receptionist

‘can re-book the doctor’s time. . You breeze through your day ©

oblivious to the upset you’ve created.

You’ ve left the doctor high and dry with a gap in his sched- ule. While he may, on one hand, relish the opportunity to gulp a coffee, phone his den-

-tist, or meditate, you’veé disre-

spected his time, time which might have benefited another patient. »

You’ve also chipped a

CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

chunk from his pay and self- assurance. Any last minute

cancellation is disconcerting..

‘A cluster of cancellations in a single day can be frustrating. One doctor reported seven pa- tient cancellations in a single afternoon. What a waste of hard-to-come by medical eX- pertise. .

Doctors aren’t the only people to experience unnoti- fied cancellations. Ask any professional who depends upon home appointment to

THROUGH-BIFOCALSE

function — real estate agents, financial ® planners, plumbers. - The :professionals make ap- ‘pointments to visit the client at

home. If they arrive, on time, but no one’s there to see them, the professional has lost pro-

- ductive time, gas mileage, and

before-appointment planning efforts:

The way some people keep track of appointments it’s a

- wonder they ever meet a com-

mitment. Others, I ‘suspect, never intended to keep the date ‘but were too chicken-hearted to say so.

Who can say what harm

. may befall the person failing

to keep the appointment. Does the patient feel worse? Does the home owner miss selling his house? Does lack of finan- cial planning sink a potential client closer to bankruptcy? You can, though, tell what ignored appointments do to the person ignored. The may get upset, lose their, temper,

threaten to be less accommo-_

dating in the. future. Sales- people, beginners especially, suffer a drop in confidence that cripples them unless they

coach. themselves with posi: tive self-talk before they face og

the next appointment. People who skip appoint: ments should consider how .

, they. would feel if the shoe

were on the other foot. Sup- ‘pose the patient arrived at the medical clinic to learn , their doctor had gone fishing, on . a whim. Or what if the home owner lost time at work to meet the real estate ‘agent who never arrived? Would. either the patient or the home owner be pleased? Not likely, =: .

‘ Adults aren’t the only ones left waiting. Take the child

whose divorced father prom- | :

ises to take her to a circus, or

camping. The day comes but a he doesn’t. Can you picture the . §

child’s disappointment? The

_ crushing of her self esteem? +

Since the common use of

- cell phones and other electron-

ic messaging we’ ve gotten intp the habit of minute by minuf changes in our plans. Perhagis

to the point where some of us __ :

fail to plan at all. 3

But an appointment is a verbal contract and should be respected.