The town hall meeting regarding the public/private partnership model of the new Comox Valley Hospital has been postponed.
Sponsored by Citizens for Quality Healthcare, the information meeting was set up to discuss concerns surrounding the public/private partnership model (P3) the Vancouver Island Health Authority plans to use for the Comox Valley and Campbell River hospitals.
The meeting was scheduled for June 20 at 7 p.m., but Citizens for Quality Healthcare's Gwyn Frayne said the meeting has been pushed back due to a number of reasons. More time for research is one of them.
"We're waiting to read everything that VIHA's putting out and read all of the information that we can from everywhere about it, and then we will be having a town hall," said Frayne, adding a new date has not been set yet, but will be. "It is very important that we try to make the new hospitals as public as possible and that's a top priority for our Citizens for Quality Healthcare."
Frayne also noted organizers are trying to line up the Comox Valley with another meeting in Campbell River within one day of each other.
And she said they're still organizing speakers for the Comox Valley meeting, including two speakers from the B.C. Health Coalition and possibly, a panel of various speakers, as well as a couple of doctors.
"We've got two local doctors lined up who are willing to come whenever we have it because they know about the system in England — which Canada is sort of following the path of England and England learned from their mistakes — so we want to bring them in and publicize those mistakes and try to make sure that we don't make the same mistakes," she said.
Frayne also said she'd be happy if someone from VIHA can come.
Once a new date is set, the Citizens for Quality Healthcare will publicize it. The local chapter of the Council of Canadians is supporting the town hall meeting.
writer@comoxvalleyrecord.com