Northern Medical Society Sounds The Alarm

Apr 12, 2018 | 11:12 AM

PRINCE GEORGE — “We’re spinning our wheels.”

That’s how Dr. Michael Moran with the Northern Medical Society describes their efforts, and those of Northern Health, to move forward on a surgical tower for University Hospital of Northern BC. 

“Apparently, Northern Health is ready to go. Their concept plans are done and now they need the go-ahead to make a business plan,” he says. “And nothing is happening. It seems like there is silence from the government.”

He says, as a surgeon, the OR’s are antiquated and can’t support many of the new technologies used in his trade. In fact, retired surgeon Dr. Bill Simpson anecdotally recalls one of his last surgeries.

“During a laparoscopic gallbladder surgery that I was doing, in which you depend o being able to see the T.V. screen and everything else, halfway through that surgery, at a critical stage, all the lights including the TV. went out. We’d blown a breaker.” 

A new hospital expansion was announced prior to the provincial election and was re-committed to by Health Minister Adrian Dix last July.