Image: City of Chilliwack / Chilliwack Councillor Bud Mercer speaks during Tuesday's council meeting in which he expressed frustration with Fraser Health over his perception that they are not community partners in the city's Community Safety Plan, for their failure to provide certain services that would enhance well-being in Chilliwack. Mercer also shared a negative experience he had with an FHA-funded walk-in clinic that was open, but didn't have any doctors working when his family needed medical aid. 

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Fraser Health

Councillor shreds Fraser Health, labels them ‘inept’ over negative experience at Chilliwack walk-in clinic

Nov 20, 2024 | 11:22 AM

CHILLIWACK — Chilliwack Councillor Bud Mercer criticized Fraser Health Authority during Tuesday’s council meeting after a negative experience at an FHA-funded walk-in clinic at the Evans roundabout in Chilliwack.

Councillor Mercer made the comments amid an open discussion about Chilliwack’s Community Safety Plan and Fraser Health’s broader role in providing health services for people with mental health. Since 2021, a multi-sectoral community safety governance committee has been meeting quarterly to execute elements of the community safety plan, like addressing crime, community safety, and well-being in Chilliwack. Mercer said the governance committee has been repeatedly critical of Fraser Health for not fulfilling its end of the deal, so to speak.

For example, the City of Chilliwack has advocated for things like short-term transitional access for recovering adults and youth, residential recovery beds. They’ve also urged FHA to fund assertive community treatment (ACT) teams that provide person-centered, recovery-oriented, and community-based outreach mental health services for adults with serious and persistent mental illness.

That advocacy with Fraser Health hasn’t paid dividends, according to a city staff report.

“The challenge we’re having now is that we continue to meet in that governance group, from the solicitor general to our MLA, the list goes on. It’s a very busy group,” Mercer said. “All we seem to do now when we meet is beat up Fraser Health. Let’s be clear. Where we’re falling and failing [as a community] is with Fraser Health.”

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Mercer shared his most recent experience as an example of why FHA should warrant criticism. He and his family required medical attention over the weekend, so Mercer contacted the Chilliwack Urgent and Primary Care Centre at 7955 Evans Road to inquire about a walk-in visit. Staff confirmed with Mercer over the phone that they were open and available, prompting Mercer and his family to pack up and drive to the clinic.

Image: Mike Vanden Bosch / The Chilliwack Urgent and Primary Care Centre at 7955 Evans Road in Chilliwack.

“We actually phoned the Urgent and Primary Care Centre that just opened in Chilliwack. They said absolutely, we’re open, come on in,” Mercer said. “So, down we go, load up the car, away we go. We walk in, lights are on. There’s two people sitting there behind the glass, one motions us up. We go up, explain the situation. She says, ‘Thanks for telling me that, but we have no doctors working.’ So, it’s open, there’s staff working, people were coming in. We weren’t the only ones. They would listen to the problem and say, we don’t have doctors today. That in itself just about sums up the friggin’ consternation and frustration with Fraser Health. They are inept!”

Mercer said it was pointless to maintain the existing governance committee when it continues to criticize Fraser Health over and over. Mercer said he would confer with Karen Stanton, director of public safety and social development for the City of Chilliwack, and try to restructure the committee.

“The challenge we have, Your Worship, is that I don’t see a point in keeping the governance committee together to continually come back every 3 months and beat up the same group, the same four or five,” Mercer said. “I think Karen and I will regroup and try and restructure what a new governance might look like, what we might call it, who are the right players to be at the table. We had our MLA at the table and when these came up, we would look to her. She would respond and I quote, because I can remember it like yesterday: ‘I have no visibility in that Ministry.’ That was the support we got from our MLA.”

Mercer was referring to former Chilliwack-Kent MLA Kelli Paddon, who was not reelected in last month’s provincial election.