VIHA FAILS NANAIMO, BUT CLINIC STILL NEEDED

Residents of the Old City Quarter are getting a health clinic that
includes a needle exchange on Franklyn Street whether they like it or
not.

This issue is not about the clinic itself. No one, since this issue
first came to light earlier this month, has raised an objection to the
clinic itself.

We all acknowledge and agree on the importance of providing health
care to those people on the street and managing contagious diseases.

Where this process goes wrong is on the lack of consultation by the
Vancouver Island Health Authority. According to Mayor John Ruttan VIHA
admitted during a meeting on Monday they failed on that count.

It would seem that Howard Waldner, senior executives and board members
haven't heard the old saying that it's easier to ask permission than
to beg for forgiveness.

While the Old City Quarter and others vow to fight on against the
clinic relocating to Franklyn Street, it cannot be stressed how
important it is for them to also face the reality that emerged from
Monday's meeting between the city and VIHA.

Whether it's seen as good co-operation between two levels of
government or VIHA ramming this move down the city's collective throat
is not important. Ruttan said there was no way to oppose the clinic.

Even as various parties may be seeking ways to stop the clinic, now is
also the time to get involved with negotiating a Good Neighbour
Agreement with VIHA and the contractor running the clinic, the Nanaimo
and Area Resource Services for Families.

By not participating they will have no opportunity to outline their
concerns and seek to have them addressed. The Cavan Street location
revealed that the health clinic brought some very real and disturbing
problems with it, and if VIHA and NARSF are going to be good to their
word about doing all they can to maintain solutions they need
involvement -- not opposition -- from neighbours.

The longer term concern remains the apparent dysfunction among VIHA
senior managers when it comes to dealing with the public. If the
public has a sense that they see VIHA as more important than the
people it serves then they've earned it.

After the mess in 2007, when they just started handing out crack pipes
on the street, VIHA agreed to carry out consultation, with the city
council and effected neighbourhoods. Now that VIHA has failed to
honour that agreement the only thing more disturbing is there is no
accountability.

An elected official who tried to act in the public interest, MLA Ron
Cantelon, only ended up being vilified by VIHA's board chairman, Jack
Kreut. Given that Kreut is from Nanaimo, and that VIHA now has an
abysmal track record on how it has treated this community, Kreut
should consider resigning in an effort to restore some credibility to
this poorly run health authority.

While it may be true that no one may want such a facility as a health
clinic that works with drug addicts in their neighbourhood, it's also
true that there are definite ways to bring such facilities in a
community with minimal problems.

One such way is by being up front and transparent. Telling people
before, giving them an opportunity to give their views. Why VIHA
either can't figure this out or just do it if they know how is a mystery.

Then again, this is an organization that has for several years been
grappling with problems in its communications department. And the
experience of Nanaimo residents seems to reflect that inability to
undertake the most basic task of talking to people.

What remains is positive, though now seen in a negative light. People
on the street badly in need of health care will continue to get it.
But because VIHA has mishandled communicating this effectively, those
who live and work in the area are only deeply resentful.