Of recent interest, Dr. Tarr, MD of Osoyoos BC has taken the initiative with a group of other physicians to ensure that the society that makes up the economy of the Southern Okanagan will have timely access to medical care. This is highly commendable of Dr. Tarr, but it is justified also to ask whether it is merely a band aid that is being applied that may staunch the bleeding, or is it a model that improves public health and reduces excess consumption of healthcare. (This issue is discussed in my submission to the Romanow Commission in 2002 and in numerous prior and subsequent papers and a driving force in the Canadian Swedish IISRE Research Initiative.) Consider that healthcare systems

In reflection on Dr. Walter Henze’s humoristic shoe store analogy in his guest editorial about funding of the needed upgrade of the North Valley Hospital in Tonasket WA, I trust the community appreciates Dr. Walter Henze’s writing, because democracy depends on understanding, produced by research, a free flow of information, a free press, and a vigorous discussion in the community. This is of course why constitutional laws in the US and other democratic mixed economies guarantee freedom of expression, of assembly, of religion, and most importantly, the freedom of the press. Dr. Henze and Editor Gary DeVon of the Gazette-Tribune, have a responsibility to their profession and to their businesses, but the guest editorial prove, that their overriding responsibility is