Interior Health needs to trim costs at the top

DEAR EDITOR:

Re: “Can’t get a response from IH CEO,” (Herald, Sept. 9).

In James Miller’s column, he wrote that he tried unsuccessfully to contact Susan Brown, CEO of Interior Health in Kelowna. He was attempting to find the reason for pulling its annual funding for Pathways and why they replaced this well-run facility with a version of theirs which has been a dismal failure.

I would like some answers as to exactly what actual physical good Ms. Brown provides on a daily basis to justify her annual salary of $350,000 she receives via the taxpayers of B.C. Add to that the expenses of renting and running an office and I’m sure a lucrative pension plan which likely adds substantial more to that figure.

Then there’s another matter of former B.C. health officer Dr. Albert de Villiers being put on $360,000 of “paid leave” while he awaits trial on child sex charges (Source: cbc.ca/amp/1.6562859).

Just think of how this money could be so much better spent on finding ways to solve the homeless and opioid problems currently facing society.

In the meantime, if anyone out there is waiting for information as to the status of their cancer or other reports that are months behind — causing stressfully health damaging situations to those patients and their loved ones — remember I.H. fired hundreds of nurses, transcriptionists, MOAs and other health personnel who refused the COVID vaccine even though they were willing to follow the other mandates (masks, social distancing, stay home if not feeling well) and who were refused any severance and were not entitled to E.I benefits.

I.H. is an absolutely disgusting taxpayer funded broken money pit that needs to be replaced or repaired with a system that actually provides true health benefits to all British Columbians and gets rid of the overpaid and less-than-useful parasites at the top of the pyramid.

Harry DeRosier Summerland