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                                       PRINCE GEORGE
High today: 29 Low tonight: 13 Details page 2
TUESDAY, JULY 23, 2002
                                                                                                                           Serving the Central Interior since 1916
              80 CENTS (HOME DELIVERED: 54 CENTS A DAY)
Lack of special deal woiries local doctors
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen staff
The president of the Northern Medical Society is concerned that Prince George will once again lack specialist care if no special money arrangement is made by the province for coverage by temporary doctors.
Dr. Bill Simpson said last week’s signed agreement between the B.C. Medical Association and the province avoids any special remuneration for temporary doctors, called locums, coming to Prince George.
If none is provided, physicians will be burning out and leaving, as was the case before the $ 10-million annual deal was reached in 2000 for such purposes, Simpson said.
“The agreement specifically says that the Prince George deal is being replaced by the new agreement,” said Simpson, noting the NMS will be making its needs known to the province.
“During the past two years we’ve had almost continual coverage for on-call duties and vacation because of availability of specialists from out of town. They were willing to come here because they got paid more under the NMS deal,” said Simpson.
“Now that that’s been removed, it puts coverage of crucial areas here in jeopardy.”
He said in groups where there are less than five specialists (like pediatrics), on-call coverage be-
 comes a problem during nights and weekends. Locums are now filling those gaps.
   “But if locums don’t want to come because it’s not worth their while, we’re in serious trouble. When physicians have to work too many hours and can’t get time off, they start to look for areas where they will not be so consumed.”
   And if there’s no pediatrician, obstetrician or orthopedic surgeon on call, “the result will be we start flying patients out of here again.” He said there are at least three locums per week at Prince George Regional Hospital.
   On the whole, Simpson said doctors are “quite content with the ratification of the BCMA agrees ment that includes signing bonuses, five-year increments, on-call pay for regular specialists, and ongoing education opportunities for rural areas in B.C. But we need that differential that says to come to Prince George will mean doctors from out of town will be rewarded. The general mood of our doctors is that this is the only crucial area that needs to be sorted out.”
   He said the past two years “have been as close to perfect as you can get” and that no doctors are talking about leaving and patients that can be handled here have not been flown out.
   The next step will be a meeting to outline special needs between the NMS and Deputy Healt$ Minister Dr. Penny Ballam, expected to visk Prince George around the end of the month.
Replanted pine could be ' target for woodland pest, UNBC research suggests
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Citizen photo by Dave Milne
Northern Capital Towing driver Rob Keddle sweeps glass from the hood of a car that drove Into the entrance of the Muffin Break on 15th Avenue on Monday.
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        Car slams into eatery
                                                                                          by SCOTT STANFIELD Citizen staff
  Bill Yarbrough had a new glass door installed Monday morning at the Muffin Break because his 15th Avenue business had been vandalized on the weekend.
  As luck — or bad luck — would have it, the new door did not make it through even one day before a vehicle crashed into the store.
  A woman, who preferred not to be identified, said she and her husband were having lunch at the Muffin Break around 1:45 p.m. when she “heard the sound of glass breaking.”
  “I turned around and a car was coming at us through the second set of doors,” she said.
  The couple was sitting at the third table from the entrance, which has two sets of double doors separated by two large glass panels.
The woman said they were “sprayed with glass” but were unharmed when the car, a Toyota Camry, came through the doors.
  She also said Yarbrough, who was in the kitchen at the time of the incident, checked to ensure they were unharmed and offered to replace their meals.
  “I’m just thankful they weren’t sitting at the front table,” said Yarbrough, who has owned the Muffin Break since January.
  He will need to replace the four glass doors, the frame and one of the panels.
  Police say the accident occurred because the woman who was driving the car may have pressed down on the wrong pedal.
  Police estimate the damage to the building was about $4,000 while the car sustained about $2,000 damage to the front end.
  The driver was unharmed.
                                                                                              by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen staff
  Weevils that attack the top of roots of young lodgepole pines have the potential to cause considerable damage to stands of replanted forests, says a University of Northern B.C. forestry professor.
  Staffan Lindgren and student Jeanne Homing, working at the I. K. Barber Enhanced Forestry Laboratory, have been investigating root collar weevils and their behaviour in feeding on lodgepole pine.
  They’re trying to determine if the weevils prefer seedlings with faulty roots from poor planting. The root systems of planted trees often don’t develop properly.
  Right now about 5% to 10% of planted lodgepole pine trees in their first five to 10 years of life appear to be affected, Lindgren said. With more and more trees being planted, there is a potential that the weevil will become a bigger issue in this region, he said. Sometimes, as they are being planted, the roots of seedlings get bruised or bent in one direction. The theory being investigated is that poor planting methods make the trees more vulnerable to attack by the weevils.
  The roots send water and minerals to the top of the trees for photosynthesis and transformation into nutrients transferred back down toward the roots again to nourish the rest of the plant.
  In a young tree, anywhere from two to five weevils feeding on the top of the root system can essentially girdle the tree and kill it.
  “There is the potential for a great deal of mortality in plantations due to the root collar weevil,”
  E-Mail address:
  news@princegeorgecitizen.coni
  Our web site:
  http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Submitted photo
Root collar weevils are small enough to sit on a fingertip but have the potential to cause big damage In stands of replanted lodgepole pine forests.
 Lindgren said Monday. Most lodgepole pine in the Central Interior has been planted rather than growing up through natural regeneration.
   The root collar weevil is a separate problem from the mountain pine beetle that has been causing considerable devastation in north-central B.C. forests. However, the scope of the mountain pine beetle problem has deflected resources and attention from the root collar weevil that has the capability to cause serious economic harm in future, he said.
Minor injuries seen in violent crash
                                                                                         by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen staff
   Speed is believed to be a factor in a collision on the Hart Highway on Monday afternoon that totalled two vehicles but resulted in only minor injuries, says Const. Gary Godwin.
   A new vehicle westbound on Richet Road was attempting to make a left turn into a driveway about 4:20 p.m. when an eastbound older four-door car came over the hill and a comer-to-comer driver’s side collision resulted, he said.
   The driver of the first vehicle was wearing a seatbelt and air bags deployed. She was shaken up and checked out by paramedics at the scene, but was uninjured.
   The driver and passenger of the older car, in their late teens, had only minor injuries from bruising caused by seat belts restraining them during the crash. They were taken to hospital by ambulance to be checked out. Possible charges under the Motor Vehicle Act are being contemplated, Godwin said.
   Godwin said seatbelts used by all involved kept injuries minor. “Without them, injuries would have been a whole lot more serious, or there might even have been a fatality,” he said.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Citizen photo by D
The driver of this vehicle, Involved In a violent collision on Richet Road In the Hart area, talks with an officer after the crash on Monday.
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