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By George Abbott
Minister of Health Services
You’ve got a four-year-old
with an earache and fever, and it’s two-o’clock in the morning.
You don’t want to take him in to the emergency room, but you are
understandably worried and are looking for help.
Or, perhaps you have recently learned that you are
pregnant, and want to ensure that you follow all of the recommended nutrition
guidelines for a healthy pregnancy, but you are just learning English and
still have some trouble understanding things fluently.
Where can you call to access the answers to these
questions, and countless more? Just dial 8-1-1, the Province’s new,
comprehensive tele-health service. 8-1-1 is an
expansion of the popular BC NurseLine service, and
will help all British Columbians access quick, comprehensive health
information 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The new simple, three-digit 8-1-1 number links together
nurses, dietitians and pharmacists, to provide a
complete health information service to anyone looking for information on a
wide variety of health topics – from help assessing symptoms, help
determining when you need to see a doctor, go to the emergency department or
safely manage your health concern at home, to where to find the nearest flu
immunization clinic.
One of the most useful features of the new 8-1-1 number is
its comprehensive translation service. To ensure that 8-1-1 is accessible to
all British Columbians, there are translators available who are fluent in
over 130 languages on the line, at any time of the day or night. When you
need to talk to someone about your pregnancy and nutrition needs, you can
simply call 8-1-1, and the trained health service representative will link in
the appropriate translator right away.
8-1-1 is the gateway to a new HealthLink BC
service, which includes a complete online tool that provides information on
over 4,000 topics, symptoms and drugs, and includes information on
maintaining a healthy lifestyle (www.healthlinkbc.ca). The website includes translated
resources in Punjabi, French and Chinese. This service is in addition to the
recently translated BC HealthGuide handbook that is
available in Punjabi and Chinese, as well as French.
HealthLink BC
– which includes the new 8-1-1 number – allows you to take
control over your own health, and manage your health care proactively,
something that British Columbians all across the province said they wanted
during the Conversation on Health. It should help reduce the number of
unnecessary ambulance transports and visits to doctors and emergency rooms,
by providing access to the information you may need to more effectively deal
with any health concerns.
In the 2008 Speech from the Throne, the Government
committed to improve patient choice and access by expanding BC NurseLine, and this promise was kept. As a result, British Columbia has
the most comprehensive non-emergency service in the country, which includes
the enhanced health navigation service and referrals to both pharmacists and dietitians.
This Government will continue to invest in health services
such as HealthLink
BC, which we intend to future
build to better support chronic disease management, homecare and palliative
care services. New and improved health services
will enable patients to be more informed, accessing the information that they
need, when and where it is needed.
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