Broken Promise # 2 Cutbacks in ancillary services and acute care beds in Kamloops

Cutbacks in acute care beds and ancillary services causing problems leading to unacceptable delays in BC Hospitals

This report from Kamloops City.com

A TNRD Director who gave up waiting for treatment at Royal Inland's Emergency Ward says it's just not acceptable. Ronaye Elliot went to the hospital and was told she would have to wait over 8 hours to be looked at. Elliot said she was too ill to sit and wound up going home. She says the blame for the problem rests with the Interior Health Authority. She reiterated recent complaints by others about ambulance attendants having to spend long hours waiting to turn over patients to emergency room staff, and says we need to find a better way.

Dr. David Poulin, spokesman for the Health Authority, says the waits are the result of a number of factors, including a lack of beds. He says the IHA is not the only health authority facing similar problems. He says they're trying to find the best way to deal with things with the money they have available. And quite rightly, Health Authorities around the province say a great deal of the problem lies with the amount of money that comes down from senior levels of government.

Cutbacks in ancillary services like labs and x-rays, along with the lack of acute care beds, has caused serious bottlenecks in ER's in almost every hospital.