Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Amandalina Letterio

ROYAL INLAND HOSPITAL

MLAs to Premier and Health Minister: ‘Look the people of Kamloops in the eyes. Walk them through your plan…’

Sep 13, 2021 | 5:15 PM

KAMLOOPS — Kamloops-South Thompson MLA Todd Stone and North Thompson MLA Peter Milobar called an impromptu news conference early Monday (Sept. 13) morning after the provincial government sent out a news release on Saturday (Sept. 11) addressing staffing shortages at Royal Inland Hospital.

Long wait times in the emergency room lead to the death of a 70-year-old woman last week, resulting in the province hiring two new emergency room nurses and four temporary nurses. But the MLAs say this initiative falls short.

Stone and Milobar feel the province is failing to meet Royal Inland Hospital’s needs.

“A mere two additional emergency department nurses and a vague reference to temporary supports that are being seconded? That is simply not good enough,” Stone said.

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The MLAs claim they have been contacting the Ministry of Health about ER staffing – but get no reply.

The death of a 70-year-old grandmother while waiting to be seen by a doctor at RIH last week has heightened their concern.

“The governments answers are ‘we’re working on a plan’, well, tell us what that plan is and tell us what the credible timelines are for implementation of that plan. It’s not good enough as a premier or a minister to just say you’re working on a plan,” Milobar said.

Health Minister Adrian Dix says Royal Inland Hospital is running at 117 per cent capacity and supporting its emergency room is a priority for the province.

“We’ve taken a series of measures this week to support with agency nursing, to support the management of the hospital with new staff – to provide support that. Our IHA president (Susan Brown) has taken a significant role in that,” Dix said at a news conference late Monday afternoon.

The MLAs urge the provincial government to increase the student intake in Thompson Rivers University’s (TRU) nursing program, so that those graduates can help support the new patient care tower.

Once the new facility opens, the hospital’s emergency room expansion will double in size.

“We will not have nurses for that doubling of that emergency room if we do not see more seats at TRU immediately because of the timeline it takes to train nurses,” Milobar explained.

Recruiting more hospital staff will require major funding from the provincial government, and until that happens, there is no relief in sight.

“The reality is, we do have a growing crisis at the Royal Inland Hospital emergency department, and this crisis has been building,” Stone said.