HEALTH-CARE PANEL SET FOR MAY 3 AT TRU The public is invited to the event that will focus on solutions to problems in health care

SEAN BRADY STAFF REPORTER sbrady@kamloopsthisweek.com

A forward-looking community health panel is planned for next week by Kamloops members of the Green Party of British Columbia.

The panel will be composed of seven health professionals, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists and government officials.

Organizer and local Green Party member David Sedgman said the event won’t be political, beyond a Green Party booth, and will focus on solutions to problems in health care.

“The idea is not to look in the past. I think everybody has horror stories,” Sedgman said. “And it’s not a political bashing because I don’t think any political party has figured it out.”

The free event will take place at Thompson Rivers University in the Campus Activity Centre’s Mountain Room on Wednesday, May 3, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Sedgman said he has a family doctor, but like two in five Kamloopsians ‚ about 40,000 of the city’s 100,000 residents — his wife does not.

Among the seven panellists is Christine Matuschewski, the CEO of STEPS, a community health centre with five locations in Kamloops that offers wraparound health services, including access to doctors, nurses, dieticians and support services.

STEPS, or Supporting Team Excellence with Patients Society, started in Valleyview and has expanded across the city. Sedgman said the clinics now serve 20,000 patients in Kamloops.

“The benefit of the community health clinic to the doctors is that the clinic runs the business and bills on behalf of the doctor,” Sedgman said, noting the model takes the burden off of doctors in terms of having to set up and run their own businesses.

“We’re thinking, why aren’t there more of them? Because it sounds great,” Sedgman said.

Another panelist is Julie Ford, a pharmacist of 25 years who runs the Pharmasave location in Aberdeen. Ford obtained a master’s in business administration while working as a pharmacist and also served as an administrator at the BC Cancer Agency.

Sedgman said Ford will speak about other duties health-care professionals might be able to take on, such as pharmacists having more power to prescribe and nurse practitioners taking on some work of doctors.

“We need more people who can do things that their doctors are having a hard time doing,” Sedgman said.

As for Green Party solutions, Sedgman said the party is supportive of the community health clinic model and also adamant about keeping health care within the public realm, rather than a private/public system,

“I don’t think there’s a magic bullet, but it could be run a lot smoother,” he said.

Supported by

Day One Society

Kamloops Society for Alcohol and Drug Services has changed its name to Day One Society.

“Day one is simply an event on a particular moment in time when a person recognizes that they can’t stop this negative behaviour; that they have tried; that they are serious about this particular moment and they recognize that they need help,” said Stan Fike.

Day One Society helps those struggling with addiction on their journey to wellness and recovery.