To the editor:
I have just got off the telephone with a gentleman of 80 years of age. He lives alone. He is due to have a hip replacement. This man has had a heart attack, a stroke, is diabetic and has severe arthritis, particularly in his hands. The man is in agony. Yet, because Interior Health has deemed this "elective" surgery, he is getting practically no help at all.
He is actually expected to inject himself with needles after the operation. A young nurse at Interior health humiliated him in front of a crowded patient’s office by telling him that 95-year-old women can do it themselves. They are going to throw this man out of hospital as soon as they can, and he has no place to go. Interior Health has apparently cancelled rehab at Cottonwoods. Maybe the new offices on Doyle have soaked up all their money.
How is this man expected to take care of himself when he can hardly move? He’s had to buy many supplies and is expected to buy even more immediately when he is released. How can he do this when he cannot move? Is the Minister of Health, Terry Lake, asleep on the job? It seems that Interior Health does not care one jot about senior citizens, and Christy Clark doesn’t seem to care either. Seniors are only good for this government come voting time. It is high time things change.
Seniors have to take up the clarion call that we are not to be stepped on by a government that doesn’t care, that is deliberately trying to starve national health in favour of private American healthcare [system]. God forbid if that happens. We will all be dropping dead on the streets. I’ve seen it happen in the USA, and, guess what? They will let you. Wake up, editor and tell the truth about what is happening. Help seniors and stop this rot that is destroying Interior Health and the Canadian health system right here in Kelowna.
Laurence D. M. Marshall,
Kelowna