The Minister of Health was in Williams Lake Tuesday afternoon after dropping in at the 100 Mile District General Hospital.
Mayor Walt Cobb shares with us some of the concerns he brought forth to Terry Lake after giving him a tour of the Cariboo Memorial Hospital with local MLA Donna Barnett.
“He’s a relatively new Minister and this is his first time here so we needed to appraise of him the issues that we have in the Cariboo, the number of people that are being held in the hospital that need extended care or community care and they’re in hospital-it’s way more expensive to keep them in there than it is to put them in where they need to be,” she said.
“We talked of the redevelopment of course and the need that when it gets to treasury he supports it.”
Cobb says doctors and nurses also shared their issues with Lake and adds that the City will be further discussing their concerns with him one on one at UBCM which gets underway on Sept. 21.
“There’s the need for more residential care; I guess it’s called for people who are not in high need but are not able to look after themselves at home and we do not have enough beds,” he said.
“I think today if I’m not mistaken there were 11 people that should be in a care home that are in the hospital taking up acute care beds.”
Lake who had also toured Deni House, says he believes Interior Health is doing well in terms of planning for community services.
He’s scheduled to be in Quesnel today touring the G.R Baker Memorial Hospital.