The planning committee for the Burnaby Hospital has an open-door policy for community input - regardless of political affiliation.
That's the word from Dr. David Jones, spokesperson with the community consultation committee that was formed in late April as part of the master planning process to look at the future of the Burnaby Hospital site.
"This talk about politics, it distracts us from the task at hand - I don't see it being productive for getting our job done," Dr. Jones told the NOW this week.
Last week, the B.C. Conservatives criticized the make-up of the group, saying that it was "stacked" with Liberal donors and members. In early May, MLA Kathy Corrigan told the NOW that she was worried about the fact that the city's two Liberal MLAs had been invited to co-chair the group while she, as MLA in the riding where the hospital is located, had not been invited.
But Jones said the committee is open to hearing from everyone - from municipal politicians to union groups and citizens.
"As far as the politics of the committee - we're a mix. Other than the two Liberal MLAs and one Liberal (member), we have someone who has worked for the NDP and the rest of us are apolitical," he said. "Concentrating on politics is distracting - this is too important for that, the task we've been given is too big for that. What we want is a better Burnaby Hospital. We're a group of volunteers, we're volunteering our time to look at this."
Jones said that the group's next meeting was set for June 7 and, this week, invitations would be going out "far and wide" to city officials in both Burnaby and Vancouver, union groups, community groups, health-care organizations and more, to invite people to make presentations or bring ideas forward.
"We want to hear from people not just in Burnaby but on both sides of Boundary Road - that eastern half of Vancouver is often served by (Burnaby Hospital), so we want to hear from them too," he said. "This is an open door, that's the best way to look at it."
Jones said that one of the issues that will be challenging is looking at how health care will change in the next 20 to 30 years and planning ahead for that.
"It's always a bit of a mind-boggling exercise to think of what health care will be in the future," he said. "In 1977, when the latest building at the hospital was opened, C. difficile wasn't even heard of yet."
The infectious C. difficile bacteria has landed the hospital in the news several times this year, with concerns about ongoing infection outbreaks. One of the leading factors in the challenge of halting infections is the aging infrastructure and design of the hospital - for example, having patient rooms with just one sink for all four patients, and inadequate numbers of sinks for staff and visitors.
"We also have to look at the city, at the demographics - Burnaby is booming, we have the most SkyTrain stations of any city, we have all this development and more towers all the time. Burnaby is getting younger again, families are living in those towers, raising their children."
The committee is expected to come back with an initial report by the fall.
That timeline is challenging but not impossible, said Jones.
"We're going to work through the summer," he said.
The committee is expected to announce dates for community presentations, along with the process for those presentations, soon.
The planning committee has set up social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter, at www.facebook.com/ Mybbyhospital and at www.twitter. com/Mybbyhospital.
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