PORT ANGELES – Jim Buck’s back may be smarting from all the pats it received Wednesday night from a grateful Olympic Medical Center and other health care groups for his 12 years in the Legislature.
A small parade of doctors and other providers trooped to the microphone at the OMC commissioners’ meeting to praise Buck’s 12-year record.
Buck, R-Joyce, was the state representative for the 24th District that includes the North Olympic Peninsula.
He lost his bid for re-election to Kevin Van De Wege in November.
Arlene Engel, OMC commissioner, thanked Buck for supporting new funding sources to treat brain-disordered and drug-dependent people, as well as for his guidance when Virginia Mason Medical Center closed its satellite clinic on Eighth Street last spring.
Kathy Craven, RN, of the Volunteers in Medicine of the Olympics Clinic for uninsured people, said Buck had provided “steadfast support of increasing health care for all.”
She was joined by Patty Hannah, former executive director of United Way of Clallam County, who thanked Buck for expanding the so-called Good Samaritan Act that holds volunteers harmless from most malpractice lawsuits and for increasing the state’s insurance pool to cover VIMO providers.
