Dear Editor,
This is an open letter to our government and Interior Health, for my community.
Just wondering... would you provide for my sister and her children when her husband dies on the way to Penticton Hospital from injuries sustained at work when our emergency room is closed again?
Would you support my son and his children when he has to stay home because his wife died from injuries sustained in a car accident because there was no doctor available to care for her?
Would you pay for my child’s funeral and grief counselling for my family if my child died from an allergic reaction because the emergency room was closed again?
Would you pay for in-home nursing care for my parents because there is no place for them because the waiting list is longer than the time they have left?
I am alone, sick and poor—I have no doctor, the hospital emergency room is often closed and I have no way to get to one that is open.
Will you come and take care of me or must I suffer and die alone?
These are questions for those that are supposed to care.
Will you answer? I wonder...
Lynn Johnson
Princeton