Image Credit: Kent Simmonds / CFJC Today

By Dylana Kneeshaw

KAMLOOPS HEALTHCARE

Amid hospital strain, Kamloops leadership calling on province to review health authority system

Sep 9, 2021 | 5:39 PM

KAMLOOPS — With ongoing staffing issues, postponed non-urgent surgeries and an influx of COVID-related ICU patients at Royal Inland Hospital, civic leaders in Kamloops are calling on the province to step-in.

“I’m not the least bit satisfied,” says Kamloops Mayor Ken Christian. “I’m really quite disappointed and I have called the Minister of Health on ten consecutive days, and he has refused to return my phone call.”

The frustrated mayor admits Interior Health has been put under incredible pressure from the wildfire season, the COVID-19 pandemic and the opioid crisis. But he feels some of the problems with staffing and operations are systemic.

“It’s disappointing to me as a citizen of Kamloops, as the mayor of Kamloops, and as the chair of the (TNRD) regional hospital district. We’re looking at building a half-a-billion dollar hospital and really right now they aren’t able to operate the one that they already have.”

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Councillor Dale Bass says herself and others have heard from residents who are rightfully concerned about what’s going on at Royal Inland Hospital. However she reiterates that these concerns have nothing to do with healthcare employees or the quality of work they do and more to do with the overall system.

“We need to recognize that and address it somehow, and that means getting control over this entire medical health mess that we have going on right now.”

Bass also sits on the Thompson Regional Hospital Board, and says a lack of family physicians and walk-in clinics in the city, a swell in COVID-19 patients, staffing shortages and burnout have created a perfect storm that the hospital is trying to weather.

“IHA (Interior Health Authority) has let this happen,” expressed Bass, “They just — I don’t know what they’ve done but they should have realized that they need to step in and do something else to help their staff.”

As they wait for immediate solutions, both mayor and council feel there should be an in-depth look into the health authority system to see if improvements can be made.

“I think the health authority system when it was brought in had the best of intentions but now we’re seeing failures not only here in Kamloops, but in Williams Lake, Vernon, even Kelowna they’re not meeting the needs and that’s where they’re located,” says Christian. “I think that really has to be looked at by the Minister.”

In response to questions around the Kamloops hospital situation, the BC Health Ministry has responded to a request from CFJC Today and says it will be providing more details around short-term aid in the coming days.