A rally is being organized by the Fair Care Alliance to try to make investments at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital an election priority.
"The purpose of the rally is to get everybody's attention, get everybody in the room at the same time and to also challenge the provincial candidates to sign a pledge to support fair care," said Kim Smythe, event organizer with the alliance.
The Fair Care Alliance, formed earlier this year, has been advocating for a new patient tower and cardiac catheterization lab at NRGH and demanding equitable health care north of the Malahat.
Donna Hais, the alliance's chairperson, said one of the main focuses is to educate and inform the community about the status of local health-care access.
"There's a standard of care in Canada for cardiac patients that we don't have access to, but I think people just expect you show up at the hospital and you'll receive that care because it's the standard of care in Canada," Hais said. "Until you inform them that's actually not the case, they don't know that. As people are becoming informed they're having more of a voice and we're hoping they'll use that voice in this election."
During a Fair Care Alliance press conference in May, Dr. Niels Schwarz, a consultant in internal medicine with a specialization in heart health explained that since 2003, the standard for treating a heart attack is a percutaneous coronary intervention, which uses minimally invasive procedures to open up blood flow to the heart.
The less effective treatment is thrombolytics, also known as clot buster – and it’s the only treatment Nanaimo hospital is equipped to provide. The strong blood thinner isn’t always effective, said Schwarz, and can have lethal side effects including brain hemorrhaging. In addition, patients will still likely need stents.
Smythe said those speaking in the upcoming rally will include health care professionals, doctors, nurses, technologists, paramedics and other community leaders.
"It's vital that all of the residents of the community come out to support fair care, speak to the candidates, let the candidates know that they will support a candidate that stands for fair care," he said. "So we want to give people a voice and this is a platform we want to do it with."
The event will be held in the Beban Park Social Centre on Thursday, Sept. 12. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. with the event beginning at 6:30 p.m.
"Fair access to health care is the No. 1 priority we need this government to rectify," Hais said.
