Image Credit: Contributed / Arian Macauley

By Michael Reeve

RIH NURSING SHORTAGE

‘Can we only get sick during a weekday?’ Kamloops family sent to Kelowna for pediatric care

May 16, 2022 | 4:07 PM

KAMLOOPS — It was 7 o’clock on Saturday evening (May 14), five days since they had been admitted to Royal Inland Hospital’s pediatric ward, that Arian Macaulay was informed her family would have to be moved to Kelowna.

“We had about 25 minutes until it was going to be shift change and then there was going to be no nurses in the ward until Monday morning, so we had to be moved. Of course, we thought we were just being moved to a different room or different floor in the hospital, and then she let us know it was Kelowna,” said Macaulay.

Arian’s newborn child was admitted to RIH on Tuesday (May 10) suffering from a respiratory illness that requires a little amount of oxygen to be delivered.

“He is sick enough to be in a hospital and he needs just a tiny bit of oxygen but his condition itself is not critical. The move had nothing to do about his condition, which was actually getting better. It had everything to do with them not having the staff to accommodate us,” added Macaulay.

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Despite the pediatric ward in Kamloops reopening, the Macaulay family will be finishing their care in Kelowna before returning home.

Receiving the news was scary, but she admitted it could have been worse.

“We were lucky enough to have been in there all week, when they were at their regular staffing, or I don’t know what regular is for them, but they had more staff,” said Macaulay. “What would happen if it happened on the weekend, or for anybody this past weekend who needed pediatric care, where did they go, what did they do? Can we only get sick during a weekday?”

Interior Health did not make anyone available for comment on this story.

With the Clearwater hospital closing over the weekend and the Nicola Valley Hospital currently closed until Tuesday morning, Arian worries the burnout and fatigue is just being passed down the line to Kelowna.

“Kelowna has also had people from Nelson being sent up here. If we all end up being sent to Kelowna and they are saving everybody outside of the Lower Mainland. What do we do when Kelowna is full? Or we start seeing the burnout here and the staffing shortages here,” said Macaulay.