There is no path to immortality, but a well-lived, meaningful life, devoted to the service of others, transcends death. Dr. Bert Kelly is no longer with us, yet he is everywhere in Prince George, his words and actions having made both Prince George and its residents better.
If there was ever a man who lived by the old saying "the squeaky wheel gets the grease," surely it was Dr. Kelly.
He was relentless, fearless and shameless in his pursuit of better health care, not only for his own patients but for all residents of Prince George and the Central Interior. To this day, MLA Shirley Bond probably has dreams where Dr. Kelly is following her wherever she goes, nagging her for more health care money for the region.
In 2012, at the Bob Ewert Dinner, the annual spring fundraising event for the Northern Medical Programs Trust, Bond and then MLA Pat Bell took the stage to talk about how Dr. Kelly was a constant pebble in their shoe, endlessly advocating for government support of expanded health services.
Bond and Bell held up a fist-sized rock to show just how much of a pebble in their shoes Dr. Kelly was.
As Bond, Bell and the Liberal government found out, a thank you from Kelly was always followed up with a new demand.
Thank you for the expanded and renovated Prince George hospital, but where's that medical school?
Thank you for the Northern Medical Program, but where's the cancer centre?
Thank you for the cancer centre, but why isn't the hospital a teaching hospital?
Thank you for making Prince George Regional Hospital into the University Hospital of Northern B.C., but where's the surgical tower?
As the record shows, Kelly always, inevitably, got what he wanted, whether he had to ask once or a million times.
Another phrase that summed up Kelly is to not judge the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog.
A small man with an easy smile and that disarming Scottish burr, Dr. Kelly was a snarling pit bull when he felt patients weren't getting adequate care because governments and ministries weren't providing essential resources for doctors and nurses to do their jobs.
Dr. Kelly used the velvet glove to advocate for northern health care but he never hesitated to use the velvet fist.
During his annual state of the union address at the Ewert Dinner, dubbed the Kelly report, Dr. Kelly would acknowledge the accomplishments of the past year in health care before launching into a pointed critique of the failures of governments, ministries, health agencies, medical schools, politicians and anybody else who needed reminding that they weren't doing enough for patients.
His critique was surgical - sharp and precise. It was the epitome of kicking ass and taking names.
Lobbying doesn't come easy to most doctors, who for obvious reasons would rather focus on making the best life-and-death decisions for their patients.
Kelly was a great medical champion because he passionately argued that support - and especially lack of it - from all stakeholders has life-and-death implications for patients. It is the responsibility of everyone - from individual residents up to premiers and prime ministers - to save lives, not just the doctors and nurses on the front lines, he insisted.
In all of their years of training to become doctors and nurses, today's medical students are not taught about social and political advocacy, that there is more they can do for their patients, their colleagues and their profession than just providing primary and secondary care.
Hopefully, present and future Northern Medical Program students at UNBC can learn from Dr. Kelly's example. Hopefully, the region's doctors take up Kelly's challenge and keep fighting for improved health care service across the region.
That is the legacy left to Prince George by one fine doctor who refused to ever take no for an answer.
That is the Kelly report.
-- Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout
