Image Credit: Kent Simmonds / CFJC Today

By Dylana Kneeshaw

HEALTHCARE IN KAMLOOPS

Public officials, community members call for emergency actions for Royal Inland Hospital

May 19, 2022 | 4:14 PM

KAMLOOPS — Olesia Romaniuk’s mother has been receiving care in Royal Inland Hospital (RIH) recently, and during visits Romaniuk says she’s become all too familiar with the ongoing staffing struggles.

“We’re all doing the best we can for our parents, our loved ones, but if you don’t have a loved one that can do that for you…” she says.

Romaniuk says she and her family members routinely go in to help their mother out, recognizing that nurses are often assigned to more patients than their normal workload.

“I don’t know how RIH is functioning,” Romaniuk stresses. “They need to listen to their nurses, they need to get more nurses, or declare a state of emergency and bring in the medical resources from whatever — the army — from whatever they were doing earlier in COVID to get the extra help. They absolutely need it.”

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Kamloops-South Thompson MLA Todd Stone says there should be rapid action taken by the provincial government and feels the local situation has become an emergency.

“We’re there. We’re in a dire situation,” noted Stone. “And we’ve been calling on the government, as have healthcare professionals for many months now to step up and take the actions necessary to alleviate the pressure at Royal Inland Hospital.”

Stone says there’s a wide range of measures that could be enacted. One of which would be dealing with an existing backlog of trained nurses and medical staff who are waiting on credential transfers to be able to work in B.C.

“That could be accelerated dramatically and it could be done so on an emergency basis. We’re talking about people that are trained in Ontario and Ireland and states within the United States.”

When asked at what point an emergency would be declared at Royal Inland, the hospital’s executive director of clinical operations, Tracey Rannie, pointed to supports they do access from the surrounding network of healthcare facilities, and Interior Health’s ongoing recruitment push.

“The team is working very hard on all theses issues and we try to avoid any service disruptions at all cost. We know its inconvenient for patients and families but the goal is to maintain patient safety. The teams work incredibly hard every single day to improve the situation here at Royal Inland Hospital.”

Those with loved ones still in RIH are hoping something will happen immediately to bring relief to hospital staff — and Kamloops as a whole.

“But you can’t have that if you don’t have a functioning medical system,” says Romaniuk. “So what’s the deal?”