Health help at the touch of a button
| Health and Fitness |
By LeRae Haynes
One of the informative and entertaining delegations that addressed City Council this fall was Bob Bell, Chief Operating Officer at www.healthlinkbc.ca who presented information that could change the way BC residents access information about their health.
He explained to Mayor and Council that healthlinkbc is a unique gateway to non-emergency health information and services in BC and that it available simply by visiting their website or by calling 8-11.
“This is a way for people in BC to have 24-hour health service, with 350 staff in 20 locations in BC available for providing information and answering questions,” he said. “You can access nursing services, dieticians, the BC Health Guide and a Pharmacist after-hours, as well as the recently-added ‘Health and Seniors’ information line.”
He said that healthlink provides education for helping people make better lifestyle choices and lets people have a bigger role in their own health care. He added that you can get information several ways: print, web and phone.
“Besides the Health Guide, these professionals help people with common health concerns,” he explained. “They provide a simple diagnostic guide and suggestions for home treatments: current, medically-approved information on more than 4,000 health topics.”
The site also lists health services available throughout BC and provides an interactive symptom checker. There are translation services available in more than 130 languages, as well as support for the hearing-impaired.
“We have dieticians that specialize in things like oncology, diabetes and prenatal care. We field about 1,200 unique calls a day and the average call is about 11 minutes long,” he continued.
“We have had 12 thousand registrations for the stop-smoking programs, including whole groups of people who want to quit together, like co-workers or families.
“All you need to do to access this versatile health program is call 8-11.”
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
