To the Editor:
There was some discussion recently on CBC Radio 1 about the ongoing problem that small towns in B.C. have with respect to convincing medical doctors to establish their practice in any small town. Mayors, councils, chambers of commerce and even some citizens get involved in ways and means of attracting medical doctors, in part because it is good for the local economy.
I have to wonder how much of those efforts have been derailed by the owners of the Osprey Medical Clinic when they locked the doctors out and denied them access to their records and equipment. That action was announced on CBC, so it’s common knowledge. What doctor would move to a small town knowing how easy it is to shut him down while the people who sold him on moving there looked the other way?
Furthermore, I have to wonder what was so important to the owners of the Osprey Medical Clinic that in locking out the doctors they neglected to consider the impact it could have on the health, welfare and perhaps even the lives of up to 3,000 patients. Could they not have made arrangements for caring for the patients instead of locking the door without warning and thereby making the patients’ care a negotiating tool, whether it was or was not intentional? When the owners committed an action that adversely affected up to 3,000 patients, they lost their ethical right to privacy.
Creston