Most want same few surgeons By MARLENE STARKMAN Patients who are fed up with waiting months for elective surgery at Lions Gate Hospital should think about changing surgeons as an answer to their problem. Contrary to popular belief, there is no current shortage of beds. The delays of two to eight months are being caused by patients’ demands for a handful of popular surgeons who have their own long waiting lists, says the hospital ad- ministrator. Cash problems still No one needing elective surgery should have to wait more than two months for a bed. John Borthwick told the board of directors recently. People who wait so long are usually “waiting for a particular surgeon to work down his or her list,” said Borthwick. “It is not caused by operating room availabili- ty or bed shortages.” LGH’s elective surgery list is hovering at 1,800 patients — the highest on record. And according to Bor- thwick, with the hospitals’ seven operating rooms pro- cessmg 800 elective pro- cedures each month, the list should be cleared about every two months. But this is not happening. The reason — because CONTINUED ON PAGE A2 plague rescue chopper Backers looking for corporate sponsor By CHRIS LLOYD The federal taxes are paid and the Coast Mountain Air Rescue Society's recently acquired Jetranger helicopter is making flights. SUNDAY: Mainly sunny, \ with some cloud. MONDAY: Little change. But so far aone of the flights has involved rescue work and the society's plans are still being curbed by problems involving money or the lack of 1t And local government authonties on the North Shore the arca most likely to see the greatest use out of the arr ambulance chopper are doing Hitthe to help The society acquire a local base for the machine Some of the directors of the Coast Mountain society most of whom = are also volunteer members of the North Shore emergency rescue team helped pay for the hehcopter by remor (paging thetr homes because they felt so strongly that the region should have a rescue chopper But the hechcopter spends most of its tame sitting in the backyard of tts pilot, at his home in Richmond. Any ume it goes out are for sight secing flights arranged by a commercial operator, to help case the burden of the monthly payments for the machine The payments are such a drain that there 1s htule left for any of the other expenses involved tn) running an emergency rescue helicopter service, such as publicity, a full ame office and salanes for a coordinator and the pilot Coast Mountain spokesman Steve Mullins says the answer to the CONTINUED ON PAGE A4 OFF TO A FLYING START i the carly stages of the flith annual Grouse Moantain international Hang Gliding Championships, Willie Maller, from Cochrane Alberta placed well in the first day of the contest Thursday. A pioneer in the sport, Muller was the flrat cver president of the Hang Gliding Association of Canada and Is af- fectionately known as The Old Man of Hang Gliding (Eric Eggertson photo}.