Thursday February 5, 2015 (Vol. 40 No. 11)
V O I C E
O F
W H I T E
R O C K
A N D
S O U T H
S U R R E Y
w w w. p e a c e a r c h n e w s . c o m
Multicultural festival: The White Rock Chinese Association is presenting its biggest New Year’s celebration ever this Sunday at the Bell Performing Arts Centre, featuring a wide range of Chinese and Western-style performers. i see page 11
Fraser Health board chair says improvements imminent: ‘We’ve turned the ship’
Two-thirds of ER patients wait 10 hours Jeff Nagel Black Press
Hospitals in Fraser Health remain severely congested despite the launch of a new strategy last year to improve patient flow, according to the authority’s latest statistics. Less than 39 per cent of the region’s emergency patients last year were admitted to hospital within 10 hours – far below a provincial target of 55 per cent – suggesting
hallway medicine remains rampant in ERs. The numbers were worst at Langley and Delta hospitals (both at 29 per cent), Peace Arch (31 per cent) and Surrey Memorial, Mission Memorial and Chilliwack General (32 per cent). That means more than twothirds of ER patients in those hospitals typically waited longer than 10 hours for a bed. Other key capacity indicators in the health region’s newly released monthly report card
show hospitals across the region are also struggling to meet targets to limit the average length of patient stay, the number of patients staying more than 30 days and the proportion of patients who could instead be treated at home or in other settings instead of hospital. Fraser Health board chair Karen Matty said ERs are jammed right now from the annual winter surge, mainly due to large numbers of patients arriving sick from the flu.
“You don’t build an airport for the Christmas rush and you don’t build a hospital for the flu season,” Matty said in an interview. “The airlines get to say ‘We’re sold out.’ But we can’t turn patients away.” Matty said she’s confident Fraser will soon see good results from its new strategic and operational plan, completed last year after a review ordered by Health Minister Terry Lake. i see page 4
Boaz Joseph photos
T(w)een spirit Cloverdale’s TeenFest proved popular for tweens and younger, too, as White Rock’s Sam Kreeft (far left) and Bella Tanaka, both 9, took novelty pictures, and members of the White Rock Gymnastics and Diving Training Academy’s circus troupe demonstrated Saturday.
Neighbouring MP pushes for impaired-driving deaths to be labeled ‘vehicular homicide’
Parliamentarians to consider Kassandra’s Law Monique Tamminga Black Press
Kassandra Kaulius
A Surrey woman killed by a drunk driver in 2011 has inspired another call for changes in the laws around impaired driving causing death. And if Kassandra’s Law – a private member’s bill named after Kassandra Kaulius and introduced in the House of Commons by Langley MP Mark Warawa Monday – is passed, drivers who kill
DREAM DATE! Pick up an entry form from any Semiahmoo retailer for your chance to WIN* 2 TICKETS TO “IGNITE A DREAM” a formal evening of wine tasting, culinary delights and musical entertainment. 3 pairs to be won. *No purchase necessary. Contest rules and regulations at Customer Service. Must be 19 or older to attend. Draw date is Saturday, February 14 at 6pm.
someone while drunk behind the wheel will spend at least five years in jail. Warawa said he wants the law to start calling impaired driving causing death “what it truly is: vehicular homicide.” Kaulius, 22, died when her car was struck by a van that ran a red light at 152 Street and 64 Avenue. The driver, Natasha Warren – who left the scene and hid in nearby bushes – admitted to consuming a bottle-and-a-half of wine
before getting behind the wheel. She was sentenced to three years in prison, served two and was released recently. Since Kassandra’s death, her mother, Markita, has worked with other grieving families and created the group ‘Families for Justice,’ lobbying for stiffer penalties for drunk drivers. Markita works at the Langley RCMP detachment with the auxiliary constable co-ordinator. She described Warawa’s
bill as “only the first step.” “We’ve been fighting for several changes to laws for the last three and a half years, and will continue to do so,” said Markita on the Families for Justice Facebook page. Warawa, a former ICBC safety coordinator, said impaired driving is the number-one cause of criminal death in Canada every year. i see page 4
Unicare Retirement Communities in White Rock www.unicarehomes.com
Largest Suites
15366 - 17th Ave. White Rock 604-531-1160
$1795 Studios Respite Suites
15340 - 17th Ave. White Rock 604-531-7470