A post of praise for a service often overlooked in our community.
Northern Health operates a bus service for Northern residents who must travel to Kamloops or Vancouver for medical reasons. Buses come from as far away as Dawson Creek and Prince Rupert to Prince George and then south to Kamloops or Vancouver.
This service is excellent. The buses are clean, well appointed and equipped with additional electrical plugs for medical devices. The drivers are all excellent - courteous and helpful for the patients they carry.
Patients are able to take their electrical scooters or power chairs, sleep apnoea machines and other required gear. Each bus is equipped with a lift to enable patients and gear easy access to the buses.
The service is simply excellent and a very welcome addition to medical services in our northern communities.
The cost is the best bargain in travel available. For $40, you get a return trip to and from Vancouver. You must have a medical reason for using the service, backed by a doctor referral.
Given the state of medical services - especially specialists - available to northern residents, this is an excellent idea well implemented and a great addition to our communities.
A special word must be added for the drivers for they are all very well suited to deal with passengers with medical issues. A better team of drivers would be hard to find - anywhere.
Prior to this service patients had to either travel with their own vehicles or take the Greyhound, airline or perhaps even the train (with a night over in Jasper).
Any of those alternatives were expensive and lacked the ability to carry the medical gear so many now require.
Now, this gear may not only be carried but it can also be used en route due to the well thought out design of this fleet of buses.
My thanks to those who initiated this service and those drivers - all of them - who have been so kind to me during my trips to and from Vancouver.
(The University Hospital should do a better job of clearing snow from the access lane used by these buses. On my last trip, the bus was stopped on hospital grounds due to icy conditions and it took some time - and a great deal of difficulty - for the passengers to be unloaded safely.)
Sonia Pang
Prince George
