Editor:
Re: Residents fight for Ocean Park medical lab, Feb. 9.
Open letter to Surrey-White Rock MLA Tracy Redies and Surrey Coun. Mary Martin.
I would like to thank both of you for your strong, vocal support for keeping the lab in Ocean Park open, at the Feb. 7 Fraser Health Authority board meeting, as reported in Peace Arch News.
Two points which were not mentioned, but which I feel are very relevant to the discussion, were:
• since the ECG test was removed from the lab’s options, fewer people – including myself – attended the lab for their check-ups. Naturally as a result, the over-all lab attendance numbers dropped.
• there is very poor signage for the lab’s presence, and its entrance is in the interior mall hallway. People simply do not know it is there.
Also, I think it is unfortunate to call the facility “the Ocean Park lab”. That sounds elitist. The lab has been available to anyone who wishes to use it, not just Ocean Park residents.
Anne Helps, White Rock
• • •
The decision by Fraser Health to close the Ocean Park lab was made without any community consultation and, regardless of what they may say, it was made for budget purposes only.
My view is that the decision to meet with concerned citizens is window dressing that will allow the board to say that they listened, but the closure of the lab will go ahead as planned.
This is another example of institutional hypocrisy on the part of the health authority who on the one hand promote their commitment to healthy communities, but on the other hand take this kind of action that will harm the community.
Fraser Health will say they know best because they continue to think of communities as patients that they can dictate to and control.
Perhaps the Ocean Park community can show the health authority that they intend to be agents of their heath and well-being, and as such they must have input into the decisions the health authority is making on their behalf.
Yvon Thibeault, Surrey