I attended the meeting at Cowichan Lodge this week regarding the illogical and irresponsible closure of this wonderful facility.

There will be no media coverage of the event because, once again, reporters were excluded. The meeting ran almost three hours, much of the time devoted to passionate and well-considered arguments to maintain the lodge.

I teased out a few facts from the smoke and mirrors provided by Vancouver Island Health Authority CEO Harold Waldner and chief operating officer Mike Conroy.

VIHA is following the Gordon Campbell P3 plan for health care in the province.

When construction began, the plan was for beds at Sunridge to add to existing public beds at Cowichan Lodge and Cairnsmore.

Now that Sunridge is open VIHA can no longer afford to keep the 95 beds at the Cowichan Lodge open and must change 19 extended-care beds at Cairnsmore to transitional-care beds.

It is documented that P3 health care is more costly and has higher morbidity/mortality rates than publicly funded and publicly operated health care. Taxpayer dollars are taken from patient care and put in the pockets of the private operator.

B.C. has the highest number of private for-profit health-care facilities in the country.

Wendy Robb
Cobble Hill