NEWS
SPORTS
COMMUNITY Fruit wine takes over Princeton Page A5
B.C. teachers strike Page A2
Minor baseball returns Page A9 $1.10 Includes TAX
SPOTLIGHT The Similkameen
Volume 63 Issue 10
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Proudly serving the community since 1948 • www.similkameenspotlight.com
Emergency room services limited Only the most critical patients will be seen at Princeton Hospital near the end of March due to lack of doctors in town Michaela Garstin editor@similkameenspotlight.com
Princeton Hospital’s emergency department is once again set to have limited services available for patients. Only the most critical patients - those whose life is in danger or who may lose a limb - will be seen by a doctor on call all day from March 26 to 29. During this time, a nurse will make an assessment, and less-critical patients will be sent to Penticton or be forced to wait until later for care. The emergency department will also not have a doctor at the hospital from midnight to 8 a.m. from March 2 to 5, 9 to 11, 15 and 20 to 22. “The situation - rather than getting better since last May - has been steadily getting worse and worse,” said Mayor
Fred Thomas. “A doctor will only be there in the most serious situations, like to resuscitate a stroke victim or sew-up a severed hand - things that have to be done immediately.” Last Monday, the emergency department was closed completely because there were no doctors available in Princeton. Patients with serious emergencies would have been helicoptered in to Penticton or Kelowna, while an ambulance would have driven people with non-life threatening emergencies to Penticton, Thomas said. This is the first time the emergency department was completely closed due to doctor unavailability, he said. “One of the doctors in town came back from Washington State in order to shorten that time as much as possible.” On Christmas Eve, the emergency room was closed due to a nursing shortage. There are three doctors in Princeton, but two are over the age of 70 and one can’t work a full night shift, Thomas said.
Daylight Saving Time begins Sunday, March 11 at 2:00 a.m. Turn your clocks ahead by 1 hour (or before you go to sleep on Saturday.)
Reminder: Time change is the perfect time to check and change the batteries in your smoke detectors as well!
See Shortage - Page 2
Wendy Bentley/Spotlight
Around 20 Princeton Secondary School students held up signs on March 2 for the B.C. Students Walkout protest to support teachers.
SPCA investigates owner of five starving horses near Princeton Michaela Garstin editor@similkameenspotlight.com
The SPCA is investigating a man living near Princeton who owned five severely underweight horses before surrendering them to a rescue organization. The man could be facing charges, depending on whether the SPCA can prove he neglected the horses, said Kathy Woodward, BC SPCA senior animal protection officer. The SPCA visited the property in November to
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photograph the horses. “All of them were in adequate body condition at that time,” Woodward said. All the horses had been rescued by the time she got the next complaint, she said. Woodward said it is important for the SPCA to do a thorough investigation because horses can sometimes drop weight suddenly for reasons other than neglect, such as if they get into something that makes them sick.
See Recovery - Page 3
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