ROTHENBURGER – NP or a GP for me? I’m no longer a healthcare orphan

After a couple of years wandering the back alleys of the healthcare system like a homeless waif, I had a choice. What to do, what to do?

I WANT Terry Lake to pay attention. For the last couple of years, I’ve ranted about the doctor shortage. When my GP of many years shut down his service, I became a stray, like a homeless waif wandering the back alleys of the healthcare system.

With no prospects of landing a new family physician, I stood in walk-in clinic lineups and sat in a waiting room full of hacking and coughing sick people until my number was called and I was given an appointment.

Then, the clinic closed. I dreamed that someday we would have a healthcare system that worked. That I might even get a family doctor of my own again. So I put my name on lists.

Early this year, I heard about a doctor who was opening up a new practice and I hustled in and filled out some forms. And heard nothing.

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Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops, former school board chair, former editor of The Kamloops Daily News, and a current director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He was awarded the Jack Webster Foundation’s lifetime achievement award in 2011. His editorials are published Monday through Thursdays, and Saturdays on CFJC Today, CFJC Midday and CFJC Evening News. Contact him at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.