Dear Editor:
Re: Anesthesiology deal helps Royal Columbian, The Medical File, The Record, Jan. 27.
I would be interested to hear more about this "deal" and how it will help patients at Royal Columbian Hospital.
I am an anesthesiologist at RCH, and I'm also executive director of the B.C. Anesthesiologists' Society (BCAS), which represents the province's anesthesiologists.
Neither the BCAS nor the RCH department of anesthesiology have even been provided with a copy of the supposed agreement reached in midDecember.
What would really help patients at RCH and across B.C. would be the ability to recruit the additional anesthesiologists needed to reduce waitlists and ensure quality care. It is a shortage of anesthesiologists which is leaving operating rooms idle and worsening the wait-list for surgery.
The absence of a dedicated obstetrical anesthesia service at RCH and Surrey Memorial is also a result of the shortage of anesthesiologists, and this situation denies thousands of expectant mothers from the safe maternity care which has been a national standard for over a decade now.
This B.C. government excels at generating headlines and photo-ops, but that's not how you run a quality health-care system. It's time that the government starts focusing on health care as a service to the public and not simply as an expensive means to win votes.
Roland Orfaly, MD, FRCPC, Executive Director, B.C. Anesthesiologists' Society
