WTG NHA. Yes, I think the Northern Health Connections is a vital part of our health care in the north. It allows for people with limited finances or elderly to get the best possible health care available. It is designed for someone in Terrace, to access UHNBC.

As far as Greyhound goes, and their threat to pull out of BC, Well that can happen. It just means someone else will step in!

Is this a real statistic from NH? I am inclined to think not.

Maybe if Greyhound had a little better committment to PASSENGERS, especially those with special needs such as medical transportation, there wouldn’t have been a need for the Northern Health bus.

Why is Northern Health involved with abus service in the first place?

What they need to be involved in is providing enough bets for sick people.
Cheers

“Why is Northern Health involved with abus service in the first place?

What they need to be involved in is providing enough bets for sick people.”

You can add all the beds you want but they won’t do you one lick of good if the doctor you need to see is down in Vancouver.

The bus is there to get people from the north to the doctors in the lower mainland.

Hopefully Northern Health will have someone at the meeting tonight to set it straight. Council needs to be reminded of the little guy and not big business.

Difficult to comprehend the attack by Greyhound’s management team on NH’s bus service for sick people and their care givers …. this type of logic would see the hotel industry attack Ronald McDonald house, etc… perhaps Greyhound should look at replacing the management team if this is the best revitalization strategy they can formulate ..

Of course the NH bus is subsidized. It’s for medical travel and you are asked to provide your appointment information when booking.

So is Greyhound saying that they don’t receive any subsidies?

Kick Greyhound out and let someone else do it.

Northjern Health is just building an “empire” and i dont blame Greyhound for taking them to task. The administration part of Northern Health is almost as large as the care ficiltiy.

Northern Health needs to concentrate on HEALTH CARE and let public transport look after transportation. “Maybe” there is a shortage of Doctors but there is also a shortage of beds. And maybe if our dDoctors were not so concerned about “Malpratice” the health care would also improve and we wouldnt need a fleet of buses to haul the sick.,
Cheers

Check this ouit:

In total, Northern Health Connections has 11 buses in its fleet – six coach buses for longer travel and 5 mini buses for shorter distances. Those buses are used to transport northern residents to medical appointments out of town
Cheers

As someone who works in the medical community, but not for Northern Health, I can see what an asset the health bus is for the outlying northern communities. These buses allow ease of travel for medical appointments, so that gas prices or inability to drive/ winter roads or simply illness does not stop people from receiving the medical services they can’t access in their own communities. Greyhound is not in competition with these travellers, but they had previous opportunity to offer this service in the north for medical travel, and they never did.

All, that being said, I do disagree that employees of Northern Health can travel on these buses for free. If you work for Northern Health, you can afford the nominal fees for the travel just like everyone else.

“Northern Health needs to concentrate on HEALTH CARE and let public transport look after transportation. “Maybe” there is a shortage of Doctors but there is also a shortage of beds. And maybe if our dDoctors were not so concerned about “Malpratice” the health care would also improve and we wouldnt need a fleet of buses to haul the sick.,”

I disagree. Rather than adding more beds, what we really need is for people to start accepting responsibility for their own well-being; people need to start adopting healthier lifestyles.

If one NH employee is traveling on a NH bus for FREE, that is one too many.

I am not a Greyhound fan (don’t ever ride the bus), but it is wrong to hold a private company to a standard that a publicly-funded one is not.

For those who say to kick Greyhound out and let someone else come in, be careful you don’t get what you are asking for. You may just get the first half of that request, but not the second. What private company would want to compete with a tax-payer subsidized competitor?

Here is a better idea. NH should get totally out of the bus business altogether and if they want to help patients, then simply subsidize their tickets on Greyhound. It would likely cost less than now and would give Greyhound more reason to add to their schedules instead of reducing them.

Hey flowerman. Theres not a thing wrong at all wioth NH employees using the bus service. In fact, all NH employees should be required to use that service as it would save tons of money. (Not that NH wouldn’t spend it anyways…)