By Jill Sperling

ER death of retired physician sparks call for better services at RIH

Mar 21, 2017 | 5:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — Dr. Rajindar Joneja spent much of his life serving the community of Kamloops as a respected physician at Royal Inland Hospital, and it was there that he took his last breath on March 12. 

Joneja, a retired neurologist and psychiatrist, passed away in a waiting room as his heart failed, two days before his 83rd birthday.

WATCH: Full report by Jill Sperling

His wife, Dr. Janice Joneja, was with him when he died. She has written a letter to the health minister and administrative and medical staff at RIH, calling for improvements to be made at the hospital, which she says lacks the facilities needed to attract medical professionals.

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“30 per cent of the population of Kamloops does not have a GP. Now, my question is why would any doctor choose to practice in Kamloops?” 

Joneja has been asking that question frequently following her husband’s death. 

Dr. Rajindar Joneja was taken to hospital around 3 p.m., on March 12. He had been having chest pains that were becoming quite severe.

The retired doctor detailed his pain and medical history to a triage nurse. Dr. Rajindar Joneja’s heart was damaged from chemotherapy drugs used during a bout of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

He was given two aspirin and told to wait for a physician. Within minutes, Joneja was in cardiac failure.

“I just took him in my arms and I said, ‘I’m with you, I’m here,’” Dr. Janice Joneja said. “He took his last breath in my arms, sitting in the wheelchair in the waiting room.”

Joneja says her husband was in obvious distress, and should have been taken immediately to a bed or trauma room. 

“It is quite likely, almost inevitable he would have died, because he was in that acute phase,” Joneja said. “However, it wouldn’t have been under those circumstances.”

The department head for the ER, Dr. Anders Ganstal, expressed his sympathies to the Joneja family and said the incident was undergoing a quality assurance review. 

“It’s already in the process of being reviewed as is all cases that present with patients concerns or concerns by ourselves,” Ganstal said. “So this process is undergoing right now, and we’ll be continuing for the next two or three weeks at least.”

Emergency Room procedures are not Joneja’s only concern. She says the absence of a cardiology clinic and cancer clinic is a disservice to the community. 

“We’re at least 20 years behind Kelowna,” she said. “We’re always told it’s all a matter of money, but the point is that this is a community that is lacking dreadfully in medical care.”

Joneja believes the lack of facilities in which to practice medical skills is why the community struggles to attract physicians, adding anyone who practices in Kamloops will be 20 years behind their colleagues.