A hospital affects the type of town we are or want to be. Oliver has to ask what type of town it wants to be.
Wine Capital? If so it needs an attractive pedestrian-only place including a variety of restaurants and related businesses with accommodations like hotels, B&Bs and motels in close proximity. This type of business is mostly seasonal. Seniors retirement community? Right now we are that community, however, you take away our hospital and retirement in Oliver would be less desirable. Why are there so many condos right next to the hospital?
Agricultural service centre? Right now we are that community and doing a fine job for farmers. Some retirees choose to continue working by buying into agriculture; a factor considered is do we have a viable hospital? Lose our hospital and we might see our agriculture change to larger corporate entities. We have chosen to be a prison town. These facilities can be places of violence and a close by well-staffed hospital in such rare incidents can be a life saver.
A hospital with 18 beds and a required 95% occupancy rate is plain stupid and short sighted.
This rule means that 17.1 beds have to be always occupied. What happens in a calamity like a bus roll-over or a plant explosion or a fire in a seniors home or even a life threatening flu pandemic? Having a reserve of 10 beds does not seem unreasonable.
Should Oliver lose its hospital we would lose seniors, professional health care workers, probably schools will close and agriculture might change. Tourists look to Osoyoos and the regional district for wine, food and accommodation because we do not have a Wine Capital centre.
Our hospital might look to adding a specialized clinic for day surgery like knee, hip, Lasik for eye or even a 24-hour MRI servicing the South Okanagan and Boundary area. Right now there is a great need for addiction treatment facilities.
Our community leaders have to make choices for action or just keep on doing what they are doing now.
James T Moore, Oliver
