Dear editor,My goodness!How have all the people in the Comox Valley survived all these years with a hospital so precariously far away?Did the Puntledge and Tsolum rivers, Courtenay estuary and other waterways just become terrifyingly dangerous over the past few years?Have floods and extreme tides only started recently? What a relief it must be to live in Courtenay and Cumberland and know that a massive quake will not affect their infrastructure! It is my opinion that it matters very little where the thing gets built because the bigger issue is that VIHA has been given all the excuses it will need for the next 75 years to ignore the health care needs of the North Island by having two small community hospitals rather than ONE regional facility that will obtain adequate funding, and attract doctors, nurses, and other health science professionals for our future care. It really won’t matter if the bridges are wiped out by raging rivers if the operating rooms and emergency rooms have inadequate staff. It really will be irrelevant if there is an earthquake and you need care as the trauma specialists and neurosurgeons will be in other communities to the south or on the mainland.Most of the Valley physicians live on the Comox side of the water …so have a boat handy just in case we have an unusually high tide to get them to the hospital. Besides, wherever the new facility is the beds will no doubt be filled with those waiting for appropriate extended care beds that were promised years ago. If common sense, logic or science had anything to do with the provision of your health care, we would have had a regional hospital for the North Island about 10 years ago, and facilities for our aging population would be up and operational.The communities of Campbell River, Comox, Courtenay and Cumberland uniting to provide care? I will eat my old nursing cap if you could get that balloon off the ground. (And all this whining about where it should be built proves my point.)VIHA will never provide duplication of services in both small community hospitals so you are still going to be travelling depending on what your health care needs are.Thank goodness the CEO of the BC Ferry Corp. is being paid over a million a year and will receive $313,000 per year in pension. At least with this kind of incentive he will no doubt keep our ferries on schedule as you travel to the mainland for your specialists’ appointments.Knowing that VIHA now has all the cards stacked in their favour to continue to drag their heels in providing funding for your daily health care on the North Island should frighten you much more than earthquakes, raging flood waters and hurricanes.So plunk that new hospital north, south, east, or west. It really makes no difference where they plant the darned thing.It really doesn’t matter where you live. It will be the same old stink in a newer box.Make no mistake — it has always been about money. B. Mellin, RNComox Valley