File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By James Peters

Two and Out

PETERS: Where’s the vision for health care in Kamloops?

Aug 15, 2025 | 12:30 PM

ONE OF THE PRIMARY TASKS people in management need to undertake is setting a vision for their organization.

They may consult with their staff, but managers have to be the ones to articulate a strategy for their departments and make sure it gets implemented.

For how bloated the management class is in Interior Health, it’s astounding how little vision is evident — especially here in Kamloops.

And it’s not just Interior Health. Leadership at other government health organizations such as BC Cancer and Cardiac Services BC seem more than fine to treat Kelowna as the favoured child and throw the scraps up the Coquihalla.

Kamloops is one of the fastest growing communities in Canada, having recently crested the 100,000 mark. Medical services for a host of outlying residents and communities are also offered here.

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The latest example of our city getting the shaft was articulated by Al Patel this week. Patel’s ICCHA-Wish Foundation has raised millions of dollars to bring state-of-the-art cardiac services to Royal Inland Hospital.

The organization spearheaded a new, four-bed coronary care unit at the hospital in 2019 — but when the pandemic hit a year later, Patel says IH pillaged the unit’s nurses for the emergency department.

The staffing complement hasn’t been restored. IH says it’s working on it.

Now, the departure of a cardiologist means major outages in cardiac coverage at RIH. Meanwhile, 1 in 16 Canadians has heart disease. That’s more than 6,000 people in Kamloops.

Add this failure to the pile.

The inexplicable omission of a PET/CT scanner from the planned cancer centre is baffling.

Expectant parents are told they may or may not be able to access maternity services at RIH, a facility billed as a tertiary care hospital.

And the health authority continues to play whack-a-mole with emergency room closures in smaller communities.

Got the problem under control in Merritt? It pops back up in Lillooet, 100 Mile House and Clearwater.

Who’s at the controls here? Is it the province, the health authority — or both? What’s being done to address all these problems? Should Kamloops just be happy we have the favoured child Kelowna two hours away?

And most importantly, is there a vision to assure us anything will change for Kamloops health care in the future?

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.