Brenda Dorosz has started a petition calling attention to concerns about healthcare in Osoyoos and Oliver. (Richard McGuire file photo)
She wouldn’t call it a panic situation, but there are deep concerns about healthcare services in Osoyoos and Oliver, says a well-known Osoyoos community activist who has started a petition to address those concerns.
Brenda Dorosz, who formed the Save Our School committee last year in an effort to keep Osoyoos Secondary School (OSS) from closing and then ran unsuccessfully to win the NDP nomination for Boundary-Similkameen in the upcoming May provincial election, says there’s been very strong community reaction to her petition since she started circulating it last Sunday.
The petition is available online as well as at 15 stores and community gathering places in Osoyoos, said Dorosz.
“We’ve had really strong response in both Osoyoos and Oliver,” said Dorosz. “A lot of people are very worried about what’s happening with healthcare … and the fact you can’t get a doctor in Osoyoos.”
Besides circulating a petition, Dorosz has also formed her own Facebook page called Residents for Healthcare – Osoyoos and Oliver – to spread the word about the campaign.
The online petition can be reached by going online and visiting www.change.org/p/urgent-need-for-more-doctor-medical-services-in-osoyoos-bc.
Dorosz and Lynn Rempel, who recently moved to Osoyoos with her family, met with McKortoff Friday morning for over an hour to discuss the petition and their concerns over healthcare services in Osoyoos and Oliver.
McKortoff, Dorosz and Rempel were also interviewed by a crew from Global Television after their meeting.
Dorosz believes healthcare will become one of, if not, the biggest issue for South Okanagan residents during the upcoming election campaign leading into the May 9 provincial election.
The petition was circulated the day before Dr. Peter Entwistle, Chief of Staff at South Okanagan General Hospital (SOGH) in Oliver announced he was stepping down from his position over concerns about the number of beds being cut at the hospital.
Dorosz said her phone has been “ringing off the hook” over the past several days with Osoyoos and Oliver residents voicing their concerns over the lack of healthcare services in both communities.
“Healthcare issues are a huge concern and I’ve received so many calls, it’s truly unbelievable,” she said.
Because the two towns are located so close to one another and SOGH services residents from Osoyoos and Oliver, Dorosz said she and supporters would like to form a coalition with community leaders in Oliver to look at possible solutions to healthcare concerns.
“I think it would be better if we worked together,” she said.
Dorosz said she and many others she has talked to are very worried SOGH will be closed once the new $325-million Pentiction Regional Hospital tower is completed in 2019.
“I believe the plan is to close the hospital in Oliver once the new tower in Penticton is completed,” she said. “That would really be bad for residents in Osoyoos and Oliver who would have to travel all the way to Penticton if the hospital in Oliver were closed.”
Entwistle has hinted strongly he is planning to enter the race to represent the Boundary-Similkameen to make healthcare the primary focus in the upcoming campaign.
Meanwhile, the Vancouver-based BC Health Coalition is planning an information session on Tuesday, April 4 to talk about MSP premiums, extended wait times and other healthcare concerns.
That session will take place from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Osoyoos Seniors Centre.
Another session will take place on Saturday morning at the Oliver Community centre starting at 9 a,m., The session is scheduled to last until noon.
Similar sessions are scheduled for Princeton on April 4 at 7 p.m. and Grand Forks on April 6 at 5:30 p.m.
“The provincial election is a major opportunity to improve public health care for everyone, and in Osoyoos we want to push candidates from all parties to strengthen health care,” the coalition says on its website. “To do that, we need to start working now.
“If you want to see health care get better for everyone we’d love to have you join us.”
The BC Health Coalition is a non-partisan, non-profit organization with plans to push provincial parties to have strong public healthcare pillars in their platforms.
To learn more about the Coalition and its objectives in the Boundary-Similkameen, visit www.votepublichealthbc.ca/boundary_similkameen.
Dorosz said her meeting with McKortoff was cordial and she’s hopeful Town leaders will be part of any committee that might be formed to look at resolving the myriad of healthcare issues facing Osoyoos and Oliver residents, particularly attracting more physicians to this area.
Dorosz said any plan moving forward should include more use of nurse practitioners and pharmacists.
“Bringing in more nurse practitioners is something the Town should look into,” she said. “They can now do many things doctors do, except dole out prescriptions for heavy narcotics.”
The growing healthcare concerns don’t lie at the door of the mayor and council, but she’s confident they will want to be part of finding solutions, said Dorosz.
“They know something needs to be done,” she said. “I’m hoping we can work together to try and find some solutions.”
When she was a little girl growing up in Osoyoos, there were six or seven full-time physicians for a population around 2,000 and now they are only four for a population close to 5,100, she said.
McKortoff agreed the meeting with Dorosz and Rempel was productive and she’s willing to be part of any team that would look at possible solutions to healthcare woes in this region.
“Council would like to work together with everyone to try and find resolutions to these concerns,” she said. “We’re all about trying to bring new people to our Town and in order to do that, you have to ensure a great quality of life.
“You do that by beautifying the Town and making it safe community with good roads, water and sewer. Those are the things we have control over and we’ve done a good job with those.
“We can’t tell doctors to come here and set up because they make their own choices and run their own businesses. But we can make this a great place to live and that’s why we do get so many new people coming here.”
McKortoff said she’s a member of a rural health committee initiative for the South Okanagan and this committee continues to work on issues and plans to try and attract doctors and healthcare professionals to this region.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
