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Thursday, April 18, 2019 | Your community newspaper since 1916
Heathcare centre to be opened at Parkwood Mall Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca A healthcare centre devoted to providing urgent and primary care to people without family doctors will be opened in Parkwood Mall in June, Premier John Horgan said Wednesday in Prince George. The second of its type to be established in northern B.C., the centre is similar to an after-hours walk-in clinic for people who need help but do not need to go to the emergency room. However, the clinic will also provide follow-up care by appointment during the day. Horgan said the clinic will start with pharmacare services but will be expanded over the next three years to provide drop-in “team-based” care. At full capacity, the centre is expected to serve about 8,000 people per year. Coinciding with that, an outreach program is to be established. To be based out of the city’s Central Interior Native Health and Blue Pine community health centres, providers are to bring primary-care to patients wherever they are. Work is also underway to establish a mobile support team to deliver mental wellness services. Overall, more than 30 new healthcare providers are to be recruited for the centre and outreach program, consisting of a general practitioner, two nurse practitioners, one clinical pharmacist, a First Nations elder to ensure cultural safety and 26 nursing and allied healthcare providers. By the time it’s fully rolled out, the province will put $4.7 million per year towards the effort. “As we all know, good health is a foundation of a good life,” Horgan said. “And we have been working tirelessly for the past 20 months to try and ensure that we’re delivering healthcare where it’s needed, when it’s needed, in the most cost-effective way, ensuring the right provider is with the patient to meet the needs of those individuals, to meet the needs of families, to meet the needs of regions,” Horgan said during a media event at the Prince George Public Library. Health Minister Adrian Dix was also on hand. He credited the city’s healthcare community for making the developments possible.
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Premier John Horgan and Adrian Dix, Minister of Health make an announcement in Prince George at the Bob Harkins Branch of the Prince George Public Library for an urgent care clinic in Parkwood. “The reason we are in Prince George today is because the Division of Family Practice, Northern Health Authority, nurse practitioners stepped up and said ‘we want to do this here,’” Dix said, noting all of the city’s 32 clinics are participating in what’s been dubbed a primary care network. On another issue, Horgan and Dix said the effort to build a new surgical tower at University Hospital of Northern B.C. has reached the concept stage and agreed when asked it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. “I think that’s a safe bet, yeah,” Horgan replied. Prince George-Valemount MLA Shirley Bond welcomed the news on both fronts.
“I welcome any sort of improvements to access,” she said. “We know we’ve been having issues at our hospital in terms of overcapacity and who’s in ER.” Bond also noted the latest rollout is based on a “fantastic northern model, building on it and adding capacity here in the north, so I think that’s an important announcement. And I want to congratulate members of the family practice team who have literally been leaders in the province.” On the surgical tower, Bond said she was “relieved to hear that we’ve at least got the concept plan on the agenda but again it’s always in that caveat of there are lots of communities that have needs.
“Prince George is a northern centre, it deals with thousands of patients across northern British Columbia, so we need to keep pressing to make sure that we move any improvements to our infrastructure up on that list. “But I think we heard the premier say today it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when and I’m going to continue to remind him that the sooner, the better.” Also on Wednesday, Horgan and Dix were in Quesnel to confirm $27 million worth of upgrades to G.R. Baker Hospital. The emergency department and intensive care unit will be tripled in size. Construction is expected to start in late 2019 and be complete in 2021.
Chiefs want to address racist tone, Landowner donates property to Lheidli T’enneh misinformation about caribou plan Alaska Highway News Treaty 8 First Nations involved in caribou recovery efforts in the South Peace hope an extension on public consultations and the appointment of a community liaison will stem the spread of misinformation and some of the racist tone surrounding their negotiations with the provincial and federal governments. West Moberly Chief Roland Willson and Saulteau Chief Ken Cameron met with Premier John Horgan and Forests Minister Doug Donaldson in Dawson Creek on Monday. Horgan has extended consultations until May 31, and appointed Dawson Creek city councillor and
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former Liberal MLA Blair Lekstrom as his advisor on the file. In a press release on Tuesday, the chiefs said Lekstrom will be instrumental in dispelling myths about the agreement and addressing the racist attitudes found in some commentary about the issue on social media. “We denounce racism in every form. That includes ‘dog whistle’ statements in social media posts that promote stereotypes or invite others to imagine that there are some concealed motives lurking behind these agreements,” Willson said. “We welcome the extra time to dispel myths about the agreements. We also appreciate hearing Premier Horgan say that the pro-
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vincial government denounces the racist comments and conspiracy theories that have been circulating. There are no backcountry closures.” The two took aim in particular at Prince George-Peace-River-Northern Rockies MP Bob Zimmer for spreading misinformation about potential closures. There will be no restrictions on activities like hiking, hunting, fishing, and camping, and any snowmobile closures in caribou habitat will be offset with new snowmobile areas elsewhere, Willson said. Reductions to annual allowable cuts to forestry companies will amount to 300,000 cubic metres. — see ‘THIS IS, page 3
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A private landowner is donating two regional district lots to the original keepers of the land. For the past few decades, Penelope Harris has owned the two parcels of undeveloped forest in the Willow River community. She never spent any time with the land, owning it as an investment property. On Wednesday, she handed it over, every pebble and twig, to the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation (LTFN). “We believe this is the first time a property owner in our territory has gifted the nation with private land,” said LTFN chief Clay Poutney.
“I wanted the land to be taken care of,” said Harris, who lives in Abbotsford but came to Prince George on Wednesday for a ceremony of thanks at the House Of Ancestors (Uda Dune Baiyoh) conference centre. “It was made so easy for me. I’m delighted. I just wish I had more.” Although the gesture was a personal one, Poutney said the impact was symbolic on a national level. “What Penelope is saying, in effect, is that reconciliation is not just something governments do. It’s also about what individuals are doing,” he said. Harris said the word reconciliation was not in mind when she made her choice. —see ‘IT WAS, page 3
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