Dear Editor:
“Prevention is better than having to cure.”
That should be the motto of Interior Health (B.C. Health) but they do not wish to apply it evenly, else why are they closing all STD clinics in the South Okanagan?
I hope the bean counters read the recent letters in the paper written by an STD clinic nurse.
She knew whereof she spoke as she said the street clinic for sexually transmitted diseases cannot be adequately replaced by Interior Health’s suggested alternative.
Public health must be an important part of any successful health program.
It is most unfortunate that public health has never received more than a tiny fraction of B.C.’s health budget.
Think of the preventative measures we are presently encouraged to use: flu shots, childhood disease immunization, counselling and assistance for new mothers, testing for a variety of diseases such as diabetes cancer, etc. for earliest treatment.
Not all this work is done by public health nurses but they are focussed on prevention such as pioneering the cause of car seats for little ones.
So why close STD clinics? It will not save money or lives in the long run; it will cause more illness and suffering as sexually transmitted diseases spread fairly easily. Or is it just not a nice topic?
Please, readers, contact your MLA and stress the importance of the STD clinics as a necessary part of good public health care.
Sheila White
Summerland