Stephen Rees's blog

I attended a course there to-day, as part of my efforts to better control my Type 2 diabetes. One of the things they taught us was to include more activity in our everyday lives. This is important for many health reasons. However, there is no bike rack at the centre. There used to be one behind the ER entrance, but that apparently has been removed as part of the new extension there. I saw one bicycle chained to the wheel chair storage – not ideal but inventive.

Nearly everyone on the course complained about the cost of parking. I would have ridden my bicycle if I had been sure that I could lock it up securely. Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH)  must do much better at promoting human powered transportation and provide secure bike racks at all its facilities but this centre must be top of the list in view of what it is supposed to be doing. And that there was a secure rack but someone in that organization decided to remove it and not replace it. Even though there is plenty of space behind the new ER extension and close to the south entrance, used by the Diabetes Education Centre.

The foregoing is adapted slightly from an email I just sent to Vancouver Health – they invited feedback and provided an email address. I promised to let you know what they say in an update.

UPDATE Sept 1

Let us hope this is just the start

Dear Stephen,Thank you for your email and for your interest in Vancouver coastal Health.Your email has been forwarded to Patient Care Quality for Richmond Hospital.Best regards, VCH Feedback

www.vch.ca

You can almost hear the sigh of relief of the clerk in the “redirect these emails somewhere” department, can’t you. Do you think “Patient Care Quality” has any influence over the provision of bike racks? No, me neither.