(Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Dylana Kneeshaw

COVID-19 COMMUNICATION

“They need to have someone at our table”: Kamloops councillor frustrated with COVID-19 communication from Interior Health

Mar 22, 2020 | 3:20 PM

KAMLOOPS — A Kamloops councillor says he’s not happy with how public communication around the COVID-19 pandemic is being handled by Interior Health.

Upon hearing that participants of a local curling bonspiel were recently notified that they may have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, Councillor Bill Sarai says IH should have made that information widely available, instead of through an email to curling participants.

“A red light right away went on. There’s more people in a curling rink than just curlers, so how does the general public know that there is an outbreak at that bonspiel over so many days?” he asks. “For Interior Health just to let the curlers know that they needed to go get tested I think is a real letdown for the people of Kamloops.”

Sarai adds that he knows that those working in healthcare are extremely busy right now, but some resources need to be allocated to make sure the public knows what is going on.

“In no way am I blaming the frontline workers, or the doctors or people who have been working really, really hard overtime to try and get in front of this pandemic. But the communication at the top, whether that’s coming from Kelowna or here, they need to have someone at our table.”

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Sarai says it’s not the first instance during this pandemic where he’s felt Interior Health needed to conduct a higher level of engagement.

Now that the City of Kamloops has activated its emergency operations centre (EOC), and has been holding regular meetings, Sarai says he expected to see IH representation at the table.

Instead, Sarai claims the emergency management meetings have already been held without Interior Health in attendance.

“This is not a fire hazard or a flooding issue. This is a health crisis, and they should be our lead agency. Calming us down, showing us the light, guiding us — and it’s not there,” he says. “As a councillor, I’m very frustrated that this agency is sitting quiet while this is going on in our city.”

Sarai says he’s heard that there is a plan to have an IH communications representative at the table this week, and he’s hopeful that someone will be there on Monday.

He adds that part of this frustration stems from hearing from city staff that they have not had their phonecalls to the health authority returned.

“We shouldn’t be, as a city councillor, or staff, looking for guidance at a TV monitor every couple of hours to see what Dr. Henry is telling us,” he says. “Interior Health should already have that information and they should be ahead of the game and be proactive instead of reactive. We’re always chasing information and we shouldn’t be doing that. They’re here in our city, they should be at the table with us, and they’re not.”

As far as specifics around where cases are within the Interior Health region, Sarai says that information should be made available so people take the pandemic more seriously.

Provincial health officials have stated that people should already be acting under the assumption that COVID-19 is within their community.

“In our city, I’ve noticed people are just going about their everyday business,” he stresses. “It is a serious issue, but because we’re not getting the whole story telling us how serious it is, we’re not addressing it properly.”

Moving forward, Sarai says he hopes local health authorities will increase communication to make sure residents know what’s going on, and can see how serious the situation is.

CFJC Today contacted Interior Health for its comments on Sarai’s concerns, but at the time of publication, IH had not responded.