File photo (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

CARDIAC CARE

ICCHA-Wish calling for action from NDP and Interior Health to bring improved cardiac care to Kamloops

Aug 12, 2025 | 5:39 PM

KAMLOOPS — The ICCHA-Wish Fund is calling on the NDP government and Interior Health Authority for action on three priorities around cardiac care at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops.

Backed by our community, the ICCHA-WISH Fund at Royal Inland Hospital now calls on the NDP government and the Interior Health Authority to address the following urgent priorities:

1. Immediately restore the ICCHA-WISH Cardiac Care Unit at RIH to full operation by staffing it with trained cardiac nurses by September 30, 2025.
2. Enable interventional cardiac procedures at RIH one day per week in the existing Hybrid Operating or Radiology Room by January 2026, just as Kelowna General Hospital did initially.
3. Commit to establishing a permanent Cardiac Catheterization Lab at RIH before the next provincial election, not just as a campaign promise, but as a confirmed and funded healthcare priority.

Currently, the next major capital investment planned at Royal Inland is set for 2040.

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“This is not a 2040 dream — this is a now dream,” said ICCHA-Wish founder Al Patel. “We have given the timeline to Interior Health to bring those nurses by September, and within the five years we want the Cath Lab here. And we need to have all this timeline now, not in 2040. This is a shame on Interior Health and the system.”

ICCHA-Wish states the cardiac care unit has not been fully functional since the COVID-19 pandemic, when nurses were reassigned to the emergency department.

“For too long, we’ve been told to speak to Cardiac Services BC,’” says Patel. “But accountability lies with our government. When the public steps up and raises millions, the province must step forward to meet us, not in 2040, but now.”

Every year, more than 1,000 patients are transported to Kelowna for advanced forms cardiac care not available at Royal Inland Hospital.

“This is not right,” added Patel. “And I want people in Kamloops and the TNRD region to get together and fight as we do over here in Kamloops, it’s about time. Either we have a change in government or we have a change in policy to bring this thing here. We have 250,000 people, people from Lillooet, people from Williams Lake, they all have to travel down to where, Kelowna — why? Why? Every second counts.”

CFJC News will expand on this story with comment from Interior Health on Wednesday.