"We don't believe the hospital is under funded": Abbott

By Peter McIntyre/Kevin Rothwell 107.5 KISSFM

It doesn't appear nearly 18-thousand names on a petition calling for more funding for Vernon Jubilee Hospital will hold much weight with the Minister of Health. George Abbott tells KISS FM, it's simply not accurate to say the hospital is under funded which he says was based on a study done by two physicians at the hospital. "We certainly don't believe the hospital is under funded. "Interior Health has had a very close look at that work that was done. It appears there were some fairly fundamental errors made in terms of the assignment of cost to the comparitive regions that they used, so I think there's some challenges there. "I certainly have not seen any evidence that Vernon is is any way discriminated against in terms of the funding model that Interior Health has" The petition, which was spearheaded by the Vernon Taxpayers Association will be presented to Abbott by Vernon MLA Tom Christensen in the next few weeks. Abbott is optimistic discussions to include two shelled in floors on the new VJH tower for more acute care beds, will be succesful. "Based on the success we had in terms of the conclusion of discussions with the Central Okanagan Regional District for an additional floor on their ambulatory tower, there is every reason to believe that subject to the support from the North Okanagan Columbia Shuswap Regional Hospital District, we can do exactly the same thing at Vernon."