The emergency room at Royal Inland Hospital (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

SUSAN BROWN VISIT

Interior Health CEO cites incentives as health authority deals with staffing challenges, overcapacity at RIH

Jan 26, 2023 | 4:48 PM

KAMLOOPS — Royal Inland Hospital has historically struggled with overcapacity. It’s nothing new.

The pandemic eased the pressure, but back up to its historical norm, which means there are too many patients for the 273 beds available.

“It’s better than it was three weeks ago, but it’s extremely challenging across healthcare systems, especially in some hospitals that are doing some extraordinary work but also facing extraordinary challenges, such as Royal Inland Hospital,” noted B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix earlier this week.

RIH has also been struggling with staffing vacancies, which sit at roughly 28 per cent for nurses, amounting to 300 Interior Health is trying to hire. The overall vacancy rate is 21 per cent.

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“When you have a health authority and a hospital, for example, that has a vacancy rate that is over 20 per cent when it comes to staffing, that is a significant challenge in terms of the existing staff being able to provide the kind of care the people of Kamloops and the region deserve,” noted BC Liberal health critic Shirley Bond told CFJC Today.

Interior Health CEO Susan Brown, who was in Kamloops on Thursday to visit the hospital, added, “Last year was a difficult year for staffing, not just here at Royal Inland but across the region. But I’m delighted to say that despite some of the difficult circumstances there have been staff retained here and we are seeing staff come back to the site that had previously left. And they have improved their staffing levels. We’re not where we want to be, but we’re at least on the upward trajectory versus downwards.”

Brown says last year RIH added 130 full-time positions, which she notes has inflated the vacancy rate at the hospital.

Interior Health has been working to sell Kamloops as a desirable destination for nurses, who are being recruited by other B.C. and Canadian hospitals.

“It’s the whole package, depending on that person’s individual circumstances,” noted Brown. “If they are a student who’s worked in this community, then undoubtedly they will knows what the community offers, so then it’s really down to us and what we can offer in incentives — maybe a signing bonus. We have worked tremendously with the ministry to help them understand the challenges here at Royal Inland.”

Bond added, “My biggest concern at the moment is retention. How are we going to keep the healthcare professionals we have today in the system? They’re burnt out, they’re overworked, they feel undervalued. Too little has been done.”

Brown addressed the emergency room, which has been undergoing renovations. She says they are not decreasing the number of patients that can be seen, but can, from day to day, impact wait times.

“Even though I would really take my hat off to the staff here. We’ve not seen massive increases in wait times to what we were prior to [the renovations], but the crowding within the emergency department is not great. We want to be able to try and provide some relief for [staff] for that.”

Brown says more parking, another burden for staff at times, will be added in March.

Interior Health is continuing to work on providing child care at the hospital to either recruit staff or retain them.