It amazes me how Politicians cannot see the trees, because of the forests. To them, balanced books, seems to mean that each department has to be balanced. And yet, that is really an impossibility, given that any budget, is a forecast of expenses & revenues.

No budget can truly take into account the future, or we’d all be millionaires, by playing the stock market. Oh wait, isn’t that what caused all this crapola in the first place? Greedy stock brokers, pushing corporate interests ahead of real facts, & figures? Or maybe it was just, well, the poor slob who didn’t read his mortgage document carefully, or realize that the price of gas would climb by 300% in a blink of an eye?

Up here in Lotus Land, the VIHA ( Vancouver Island Health Authority ) announced that we can expect higher user fees, greater wait for elective surgeries like gall bladder, and the selling off of selected assets. ( see Times Colonist for details ) Course, they say it won’t affect patient wait times, like at emergency waiting rooms.

I suppose that is because the chairs are already filled, & they simply don’t want to buy more dumb ass metal benches for patients to wait on, until treated.

The longer this ‘downturn‘ continues, the greater the demand will be for health care. It is a simple fact, & yet our elected leaders believe that cutting costs, selling off assets, is how to solve our fiscal crisis. It makes NO SENSE to sell off lands, adjacent to hospitals, that WILL be needed for expansion, as the population increases.

It is this so called ‘Conservative Fiscal Policy’ that leads to long term debt, and increased operating expenses. If we OWN the land now, selling it off to meet current shortfalls means, that when it comes time to expand, WE WILL PAY MUCH MORE.

True fiscal responsibility means in protecting our current investment, and in insuring we get value for every single dollar spent. Now I don’t know about you folks, but I want physicians & support staff to GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THE PATIENT.

It is nice to socialize on the job, nice to be busy too, but not at the price of the patient. Too much is being spent on fancy new gizmos, new forms and paperwork, while the patient is left out in the cold.

Cut the remodel of cabinet ministers offices, cut the paint job for buildings, but to sell off land, is just plain stupid. It is reckless, and frankly, smacks more of a political payoff, than of prudent fiscal policy.