KAMLOOPS — Thousands of patients are waiting for an ultrasound at Royal Inland Hospital, while Interior Health attempts to recruit more sonographers to Kamloops.
Patients looking to get an ultrasound at RIH may have to wait up to a year.
According to Kim Perris, health services director for medical imaging for Interior Health West, the hospital has a shortage of sonographers and is asking patients who can travel to book an appointment in Revelstoke, Vernon or Penticton, all of which have much shorter wait times.
“It’s dependent on the site, but I would say the majority of patients are probably being done within one to three months, versus 10 to 12 months [in Kamloops] for elective cases,” Perris said. “We’re really asking people if you want to make the drive, please do and you’ll get done sooner and allow those spots here that are so precious to be used for those patients who can’t travel or really are urgent or emergent.”
Perris says patients with urgent cases may be able to get an ultrasound done within a month, depending on what their physicians recommend.
She says the hospital is actively recruiting to fill the two-and-a-half sonographer vacancies that are contributing to the issue.
“We are actually posting positions online and in journals and we actually have human resources and one of the sonographers here from Kamloops traveling to Toronto for an annual sonography conference in hopes of recruiting to Interior Health. They’ll take forth the sites that are looking and have vacancies and hope to attract some people out here.”
