The BC Liberal MLAs for Kamloops are calling on the Premier and the Health Minister to take accountability for the dire staffing situation at Royal Inland Hospital.
Kamloops-South Thompson MLA Todd Stone says that has to include a credible plan with implementation dates to address the crisis as about two-thirds of ER nurses have reportedly left their jobs recently, citing burnout as the primary reason.
“On the heels of the passing of a grandmother who waited and waited and waited for care, the care was not provided,” he said. “For [Health Minister] Adrian Dix to direct Interior Health to send out a news release on a Saturday, the announcement of a mere two additional emergency department nurses and a vague reference to temporary supports that are being seconded, that is simply not good enough.”
“That fails all healthcare providers and it most importantly fails the people who go to the hospital to get care in a timely fashion. We need the Premier, John Horgan, to come to Kamloops and to outline the plan – the credible plan – with timelines that is going to resolve this crisis immediately and ensure that is doesn’t get any worse.”
Another woman told NL News their 88-year-old mother was triaged and put in a chair and made to wait for four hours last Tuesday.
“And when I asked is she on the list? What number is she? How many in front of her? They said we don’t know she’s got to wait, it could be another three hours,” Lorraine Farrell said. “Well, my mom by then was so exhausted – another three hours after it had already been four – she just said ‘I’d rather pass at home than die waiting in the ER.”
Mayor worried about situation at RIH
Kamloops Mayor and Chair of the Thompson Regional Hospital District Board, Ken Christian, told NL News last week that he is worried about the situation at Royal Inland Hospital.
Speaking on NL Newsday, he says he has been trying to get in touch with Adrian Dix since the middle of August without any luck.
“The only thing that has happened in the situation has deteriorated and so I find that a bit of an affront,” he said. “If he’s blowing off me as the Mayor of Kamloops, what he is indirectly doing is blowing off 100,00 people in the City of Kamloops an that’s not good enough.”
Christian says the stories about the dwindling number of staff and increasing number of patients at RIH has him worried about whether patients can safely be treated at the volumes being experienced.
“Far be it from me as an elected official to start wading into the complexities of staffing, but understand this, the Interior Health Authority (IHA) has $2.6 billion per year. They have 21,000 employees and they should be able to figure out how to run a hospital that is one of two tertiary hospitals in this region,” he added.
As of the last update, 13 of 17 intensive care unit beds at the hospital were occupied by COVID-19 patients with an ER physician saying the hospital is seeing its worst influx of COVID-19 patients “by far”, which is also absorbing staffing resources that would be used elsewhere in the hospital.
Dix said Monday there are 32 people at Royal Inland Hospital with COVID-19, 13 of which are in ICU.
In a press conference on Thursday, he acknowledged that there are challenges in Kamloops, but it was unclear if that would lead to more support to staff on the front lines.
“We’re doing what we’ve done, significantly all over the province. The purpose, in some places, in delaying non-urgent surgeries to address some of these issues,” Dix said. “But I think the message one needs to give to everybody, in this COVID-19 pandemic, is the message to get vaccinated.”
Speaking on Monday at the DoubleTree Hotel in downtown Kamloops, Stone noted the system at RIH is “broken” at the moment.
“We are getting the stories every single day from nurses that have completely burned out that they feel no reason to be optimistic that the situation is going to improve any time soon,” Stone added. “Nurses that have told me that they used to have incredible passion for the job but that been slowly sucked out of them because of this massive staffing shortage.”
Two new permanent nurses to start work soon: IHA
In that weekend news release, Interior Health those two permanent nurses are completing their orientation right now ahead of starting work at Royal Inland Hospital. They also say there are four temporary nurses also set to begin work this week, with more coming in, as needed.
“This summer’s significant wildfire activity, particularly in the Thompson Nicola Regional District, and rising numbers of COVID-19 cases across the Interior region are contributing factors to staffing challenges at Royal Inland Hospital,” the statement said.
“At times, the number of people accessing emergency department services can be high, which increases pressure at the site as well.”
IHA also says they have invested $1 million in new funding this year to add staff to the emergency department at the hospital. They also note that since June 5, nine new Registered Nurses (RNs) have joined the emergency department, including five permanent full-time, one permanent part-time, and three casual.
“This includes a RN patient care coordinator for night shifts, an additional RN and licensed practical nurse for the daytime/evening shift and an additional registered practical nurse on days,” the statement added. “IH is also establishing a central recruitment team dedicated to RIH which will streamline the hiring process and shorten the time it takes to fill a vacant position.”
“We are committed to filling all vacant positions as quickly as possible.”
Rural-area hospitals being impacted by issues at RIH: MLA Milobar
Meanwhile, Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Peter Milobar noted that rural hospitals in the Kamloops area are also being affected by the issues at Royal Inland Hospital.
“We’ve seen Clearwater have to close its Emergency Room overnight. We’ve seen Ashcroft over the last while do that periodically, [Barriere too] and it is important that we do find out from the Premier and the Minister what plan they have exactly for that rural component as well,” he said.
“It is a very critical piece when you are regional tertiary care hospital like Royal Inland that all those feeder hospitals are hospitals are operating as efficiently as they can.”
In addition to the plan from the government, Stone and Milobar are calling on the government to add more nurse training positions at Thompson Rivers University
Milobar went on to say the issues are not the fault of people working in the hospital with the resources they have, but rather the provincial government.
“They cannot keep pointing the finger back at Interior Health or at Thompson Rivers University and say that it is their fault that we don’t have enough capacity or that we are understaffed or that people are burning out,” he added. “For Minister Dix, take a good look in the mirror and ask what Health Critic Dix would be saying and demanding of the government if this situation was continuing on at Royal Inland Hospital.”
“It is not good enough as a Premier or as a minister to just say you are working on a plan. This community needs to know what that actual plan and what the credible implementation dates of that plans are.”
– With files from Jeff Andreas
