After several years of inactivity, Save Our Services is disbanding.
The signing officers and former spokesmen for the Save Our Services coalition have decided to end that entity and close the coalition’s small bank account.
The SOS fought for services to remain at West Coast General Hospital and most people in the forefront of the SOS are now directors of the Pacific Rim Health Services Co-operative. The co-op will take over the small bank balance that was in the name of the SOS.
The money will be recognized in the co-op’s financial statements and will be used for a specific project, co-op president Bev Denning said in a press release.
The co-op continues to recruit family doctors for the Alberni Valley. The co-op is aware of 500 people here now on a waiting list for a family doctor, Denning noted.
“The need persists and many people are forced to continually visit the emergency department at the hospital for routine medical needs because they have no family doctor.”
The co-op operates the Alberni Family Medical Clinic on Elizabeth Street. There are currently two doctors working there who have more than 3,500 patients. Their practices are full and they are not accepting new patients.
Anyone without a doctor should phone the clinic at 250-723-4004 to have their name put on the waiting list. All names are kept confidential. Those people will be called when another doctor joins the clinic.