File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By James Peters

Royal Inland Hospital

Kamloops MLAs, premier spar in legislature over Royal Inland Hospital staffing

May 2, 2022 | 5:12 PM

VICTORIA — The staffing crisis at Royal Inland Hospital (RIH) took centre stage in the B.C. legislature Monday (May 2) as both Kamloops MLAs pressed the government during question period.

An anonymous source told CFJC Today that RIH operated at a 50 per cent nursing staff complement over the weekend.

Citing that report, Kamloops-South Thompson MLA Todd Stone asked why Premier John Horgan’s government has presided over a “worsening” healthcare system.

“We only know that this is actually happening because nurses are coming forward anonymously,” Stone said. “One nurse describes the situation like this: ‘Low morale. High stress. Toxic. Dangerously short-staffed. Unsafe. I leave feeling defeated — hopeless and afraid that we missed something and that we’ll be held responsible for poor outcomes we have no control over.'”

Horgan responded by pointing to the B.C. Liberal record on healthcare during the previous government.

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“They came up with, not a solution for health care, but a bumper sticker — ‘A GP for me’. That’s what they ran on in three successive elections and, at the end of those three successive elections, there were fewer GPs than when they started,” said Horgan. “If you’re going to throwing rocks in a glass house, you should check the fortifications before you start chuckin’.”

Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Peter Milobar then sparred with Health Minister Adrian Dix over whether the public lost or gained employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Milobar accused the province of instituting a gag order, forcing nurses to speak out anonymously for fear of reprisal from their employers.

Dix said that is not the case.

“The member refers to a gag order. I just want to read to him from the code of conduct he’s referring to. ‘Interior Health employees are free to comment on public issues but must exercise caution to ensure that, by doing so, they do not jeopardize the perception of impartiality in the performance of their duties.'”

CFJC Today requested comment on the RIH staffing situation Monday, but Interior Health stated no one would be able to speak to the issue.