Regarding the recent announcement of the decision to close the rehab unit at CGH: It is obviously wrong and on numerous levels. I speak from personal experience, having recently spent a month rehabilitating there.
As a double leg amputee, it would have been next to impossible for me to travel back and forth daily from Yarrow for physiotherapy necessary for my recovery. Transportation provided, possibly, but at what and who’s expense? Unforeseen complications while convalescing at home could have been disastrous.
Aside from the food (which actually was not that bad) the service and level of care was excellent. I have only praise and admiration for the nurses and their supervisors, the care aides, the physio- and occupational therapists, counsellors, right down to the cleaning staff. All performed their duties professionally and beyond reproach.
If Fraser Health wishes to cut costs, I suggest starting with a serious purge of their top-heavy bureaucracy and not with the very important and necessary hands-on staff.
I honestly believe that this so-called cost saving measure will have an opposite result and end up costing more - financially and in terms of human suffering, even lives. Or is that not as important as the number in the bottom right hand corner?
Thanks for allowing me to express my opinion.
Richard Rehsler
Yarrow, BC