Dear Editor:

Re: Steve Hubrecht’s article in The Valley Echo of May 6th, “Invermere Council Wary of Interior Health’s Request for Partnership.”

Too right! It was not long ago that Interior Health wanted to close Invermere & District Hospital. I took part in the protest! Interior Health’s representatives Kerri Wall and Deborah Austin proved how out of touch with Invermere residents they are by what they said. What can be more serious than spinal cord injuries and concussions that have occurred on local sporting venues, or children falling off bikes, or the aged falling and shattering bones, or complications in child births?

Interior Health took away our dialysis machine, for Heaven’s sake, and if it wasn’t for the Hospital Auxiliary Thrift Shop,we would be bereft of much needed hospital equipment.

The dispatch centre for our ambulances is in Kamloops, for God’s sake, where there is little knowledge of Invermere streets.

How many of us have travelled all the way to Cranbrook Hospital only to find our appointments have been bumped and we have to re-schedule?

How can we expect new industries, businesses and families to come to Invermere if there is no fully functioning operating room? How can we expect new physicians and surgeons to come and stay without one? Homecare services are a joke, not because of the dedicated workers but because as sole individuals they have no assistance with heavy patients, travel great distances, often into wilderness areas, leaving minimum time to care for patients and receiving paltry wages for all their efforts.

As with the separation of state and church so long ago in terms of who controlled what and who could exert pressure on governing bodies to improve services, DOI would be very foolish to enter partnership with Interior Health.

Sincerely,

Margaret O’Sullivan

Invermere