Turning to walk-in clinics or going to hospital ERs for regular health care, emergency events and care of chronic illnesses is challenging, or impossible due to extreme demand, for people who have no one to care for them.
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The current hot-button topic in the BC legislature, and for the general public, is the serious shortage of family physicians in our province. Retirement of family doctors, the high cost of living in BC, and outside recruitment of our existing GPs has created a medical crisis. Hundreds of thousands of British Columbians do not have a primary care doctor.
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Turning to walk-in clinics or going to hospital ERs for regular health care, emergency events and care of chronic illnesses is challenging, or impossible due to extreme demand, for people who have no one to care for them. The burdens on family physicians to run a practice are daunting. All the overhead costs (staff, rent, supplies, insurance, etc.) are discouraging medical residents from choosing family practice as their specialty. The time-consuming and significant legal administrative requirements add to the burden.
Why not recruit foreign trained family doctors? Make it less restrictive and promote the virtues of working and living in our beautiful province? Recruit doctors outside of Canada with promotional advertising and aggressive incentives. They would be required to provide their competence, but why make it so difficult and imposing, discouraging many from applying? And why not increase the scope and range of responsibility of nurse practitioners, such as opening a clinic of their own? Time to address the needs of the needy.
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Roger Bjaanes, Harrison Hot Springs
Elon Musk is an inspiration
It is very uplifting and refreshing to read about how Elon Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion. As far as I’m concerned, this man’s story is a very successful one. When Musk made a guest appearance on Saturday Night Live some years ago, he began the episode with a monologue, during which he openly discussed his diagnosis of autism. As someone who was born with this condition, I truly feel inspired, as his story of him has made me realize that people with learning disabilities can become very successful in what they pursue. Kudos to Elon Musk for reaching his goal and setting a fine example of an amazing success story.
Michael Bardouniotis, Surrey
I think a lot of Twitter users have been really spiritually lost since Donald Trump was banned. A lot of folks seem to desperately need a rich guy to simp for, and a lot of other users an Internet villain to fixate on. I think Elon Musk owning Twitter will really simplify their lives.
Paul Bacon, Hallandale Beach, FL