It works...in emergencies

It’s so easy as a columnist to always criticize – to find the gaps in the delivery of service or nit pick the details of some ridiculous government program.

In our health care system, for example, there is so much that could be done better or differently. Collectively as Canadians, we shouldn’t be afraid to examine more private involvement in primary and preventive care and more activity by nurses in roles currently provided by doctors, just for starters.

But when push comes to shove, as it did for our family this week, the emergency health system holds.

Kid #2 had an emergency this week. It was something with his brain and eyes and we took no chances.

Not a family who accesses health care gratuitously (Kid #2 had never been to a hospital before in his five years), we rushed to Children’s Hospital.

It was the same night that some kind of vomiting bug was sweeping through Vancouver babies. The emergency room was packed.

Less serious cases waited and waited. Some did leave, as their kids started to feel better from their playground bumps and bruises.

We waited, as well, but not terribly long. It took about an hour from the time we came in the door until we were met by the emergency room doctor.

From the first interview with the admitting nurse at eight o’clock, through to the last meeting with the neurologist at one-thirty in the morning, we were treated with friendly courtesy – manna from heaven for worried parents.

Tests were done kindly. The pediatric nurses and doctors were cheerful and loving to the children.

Even Kid #2’s Star Wars t-shirt was discussed and admired, to great effect.

At some point of the evening, a child with very serious trauma was brought into Children’s. On top of an already busy night, the doctors and nurses swung into real emergency mode. Even though a child was severely hurt and needed all hands on deck, the staff still made a point of telling each family that things were going to take a little longer that evening and why.

Babies were crying, children in pain, parents were nervous, waits were long – but the professionals from nurses to doctors and specialists were polite, helpful, honest and prioritized each case to the best of their abilities.

Children’s Hospital sees 35,000 emergency cases a year and 150,000 other patient visits. Many of the emergency cases are probably not true emergencies – these kids could probably wait until morning and see their family doctor, if they have one.

As we all know, a system that is relying on emergency rooms for non-emergency health care is a hurt system.

But when there is an emergency and a child needs help right away, I am thankful for the great care, delivered with compassion and kindness, at our Children’s Hospital.

As seen today in 24 Hours

It doesn't quite sound as tempting some how...

Beware - this is an edgy little piece that is bound to get anyone who circulates it denouced as anti-muslim and, probably, a racist.

I think it's worth thinking about.

Will Teachers Get Their Bonus?

The teachers have eight days left to get the signing bonus doled out to the rest of the public service employees in BC.

It looking increasingly likely that isn’t going to happen.

Teachers and their employers, the BC Public School Employers Association, have never reached a negotiated settlement and there is nothing to indicate that this year’s talks are going to end any differently.

That’s right. They have never reached a settlement. The terms of their contracts have always been imposed by the Provincial Government.

Can you imagine a situation in your workplace where you and your boss are so far apart on deciding your salary that an outside body needs to come in and tell you what you are going to make – not just once but each and every year?

Right now the teachers are asking for 19% over three years, down slightly from their opening position of 24%. Yes, that is as rich as it sounds, especially compared to other public sector settlements this spring.

The employers are offering 10% over four years. If they can come to agreement by the end of the month, teachers also get the extra $3000 and change signing bonus.

You can see from the numbers that these two groups aren’t even in the same building, much less at the same table.

And, worst of all, we are exactly where we were nine months ago when the Provincial Government ordered the teachers back to work.

The hope was that through the fall, winter and spring the Province, employers and teachers would be able to get together and hammer out a new model of cooperation.

To some extent, it has worked. Class sizes, the stated reason for last fall’s job action, haven’t been an issue for the teachers this time around.

Of course, the BCTF has a responsibility to its members to push for the best settlement that it can get. In the same fashion, the employers have the responsibility to sign a contract that is financially sustainable for the long term – and not just buy peace for a couple of years.

The challenge – to find common ground.

Teachers argue that they are underpaid compared to other jurisdictions. That may very well be true.

But if that were a reason to strike, British Columbia’s 79 MLAs should have taken job action years ago. BC MLAs make less than their counterparts in five jurisdictions, include Ontario, Quebec and Alberta. I don’t see anyone crying for them.

Both sides need to figure this out, within the framework of the other negotiated public sector settlements. The teachers decided to become part of the public sector union structure and that means falling in line with other public sector workers. It’s only fair.

Otherwise there will be a further erosion of support for teachers, a great and honourable profession providing amazing work to our most important citizens – the future.

(As Seen Today in 24 Hours)

Health Care 101 - Canada Style?

What is Canadian health care supposed to look like?

Are Canadians well-served or not?

What are our responsibilities for our fellow Canadians? For the poor? For the children?

Can market-based health care work for those least fortunate?

Is health care like groceries - and will we need "health banks" like foodbanks for those that can't afford it?

Is health care a human right?

Discuss...

I'm working on a series of columns about the state of health care in BC and your comments would be most welcome.

Most sincerely,
Erin

Carole James - Reaching Out To the Masses

The Carole James unbelievable bus has just left the station.

Remember her?

It’s been over a year since last spring’s election catapulted her into short-lived prominence.

Today, most British Columbians could be forgiven for not being able to pick her out of a police lineup.

Issue after issue has passed into the public sphere without the official opposition weighing in. Perhaps they have commented in press releases, but they have yet to seize an issue and make it their own.

The media clearly think that the NDP have little to add to the public discourse.

Teacher’s bargaining? Nothing from Carole James.

Transportation? Nothing from Carole James.

Child care? Nothing from Carole James.

Joy McPhail and Jenny Kwan, on their own, were a far more effective opposition than the current crew of 33.

The kicker, of course, is that while Carole James hasn’t reacted in a meaningful way to any of the critical issues facing the province, last week she ventured into an NDP heart of darkness: the mining industry.

Her mission? To reassure miners in BC that an NDP government would be a friend.

I wonder what her increasingly restless caucus thinks about that move?

Given that during the 1990s mining investment declined in BC from $227 million to $32 million, it seems very strange that this would be the issue on which she attempts to gain some public profile.

Last week, she spoke at a breakfast held by the Association of Mining Exploration in BC.

Most of the attendees appeared to be there for the entertainment value of seeing an New Democrat politician squirm. And she did, especially when many in the audience reflexively groaned when it was suggested that BC mining had nothing to fear from a return of the regulation-drunk New Democrats.

David Caulfield is the past-president of Association and president of locally-based Rimfire Minerals Corporation. He declares there is risk to the industry if the NDP gets back in because the previous NDP tenures weren’t good times for the mining business.

“The overtures from Carole are really good, but the proof will come only if they form government. There are some pretty radical fringe members in her group. The BC Liberals have worked their butts off for this industry and good government policy is a big part of the recent growth.”

Carole James remains silent or unheard on important decisions facing our province – issues on which the opposition should be ensuring a full debate.

Instead she takes her formidable intellect and uses it to make nice with the industry least likely to want a return to discredited NDP policy.

It’s either political brilliance or ineptitude on a massive scale.

(As seen today in 24 Hours)

Quote for the Day

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Speech

Can Canada Stay the Course?

The recent shocking arrest of 17 Muslim men from the Toronto area has sent an arrow into the hearts of Canadians who believe that a multicultural Canada is a wonderful gift worth cherishing.

But with the idea that born and bred Canadians were actively plotting the beheadings of our political leaders, many are wondering where the line should be drawn between diversity and integration.

In a disturbing documentary shown on CBC Tuesday night, a young journalist, full of the naive tolerance possessed only by a Canadian weaned on the promise of a de facto United Nations in our his land, traveled to Europe to see the damage being wrought by un-integrated immigrant populations.

It wasn’t pretty.

Young men in France and England, from both sides, swaggered through no-go zones threatening death.

A Dutch filmmaker was murdered for a producing a film about Muslim women by a Dutch-born Muslim.

All over Western Europe, whole towns are divided into two camps.

There is a revival of nationalist, anti-immigration political parties fanning the flames of intolerance.

Over and over the journalist asked: could it happen in Canada?

Unfortunately, events of the past week have shown that it already has.

There have always been, in our country built by the sweat, blood and tears of successive waves of immigrants, those who wanted to lock the gates after their chosen group had established a foot-hold.

Growing up in our country, we all learned the pejoratives for various ethnic groups: wops, japs, chinks, micks, pakkis. Sometimes we learned them from our fathers and sometimes on the playground.

Until now, however, it seems our country has been able to absorb each new surge of immigration. Children grew, were educated in Canada, married into settled families and provided their children a new Canadian identity – sometimes hyphenated, but often not.

Even the Irish and English immigrants who battled for decades in Southern Ontario seem to have relinquished their tribalism.

Do these arrests mark just a new, more difficult phase on the same path to immigrant integration in Canada or are we facing a new road – one where communities don’t assimilate and instead ghettoize? Are we on a path where angry young men, isolated by their faith and their culture, find an outlet in destruction and mayhem?

Most Canadians are very open and tolerant as new arrivals settle, acclimatize and begin the process of integration. But there will be a backlash if the events of this week are repeated.

It would be a shame to lose our unique commitment to diversity because of one group’s unwillingness to join Canadian culture or the over-reaction of existing Canadians to a community’s struggle to adapt to a new land.

As seen today in 24 Hours