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FUN FOR ALL AGES
City council’s decisions on which organizations should get grants this year / Page 3
This year’s ladies’ bonspiel attracted participants young and old alike / Page 21
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MERRITT HERALD FREE
THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 2016 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
DOCTORS WANTED With two Merritt doctors announcing this month that they will be closing their practices in 2016, patients are worried and administrators are bracing Michael Potestio THE MERRITT HERALD
“It’s scary. I don’t want anybody to walk in my shoes, because it’s scarier than hell,” said a distraught Cherylle Douglas who recently found out she needs to find a new physician. In four months, Douglas, along with her father, daughter, grandson and brother, will all be left without a family doctor. Thousands of other Merritt residents are in the same situation. Within the past three weeks, two of Merritt's seven doctors — who between them have nearly 40 years of experience serving the community — announced they will be closing their medical practices in the spring. Doctor Urbanus Bester will close his office by April, and Dr. Andries Smit will fol-
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low suit a month later. Douglas is one of many patients Dr. Smit serves, and she and her father each currently rely on him for the prescription medicine they need. She has multiple sclerosis, and her father has prostate cancer. “It's metastasized into the bones and into the liver and the kidneys, so he is on borrowed time,” Douglas said. “What am I supposed to do for the pain killers that I need, and my father needs, because there's no more doctor here for him?” she asked.
“It bothers the hell out of me because my father is on morphine twice a day. His mobility is limited at the best of times, I'm his primary caregiver and now I'm not going to have a doctor to get his medication.” Douglas said that without a family doctor in place, they will not be able to get their prescriptions filled. She inquired into the availability of transferring to another local doctor, and was placed on a waiting list that was 14 pages long.
See ‘Nurse’ Page 5
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