Funding boosts rural access to emergency care

Kristi Patton - Penticton Western News  Published: July 21, 2011 3:00 PM 
The lobbying for rural hospital funding from South Okanagan municipal officials seems to have gotten through to the province who announced a $10 million emergency care plan this week.  The program will benefit rural communities and support physicians by improving patient access to rural emergency services, according to the province. The South Okanagan General Hospital in Oliver and Princeton General Hospital were indicated as two of 19 B.C. hospitals in need.  In June, Oliver Mayor Pat Hampson told the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen board that Oliver’s emergency ward has only three doctors providing coverage where there normally would be seven. He said doctors have submitted their resignations over pay-equity issues because they are being paid on a case-by-case basis in emergency instead of receiving salary as in Penticton Regional Hospital. Hampson along with Osoyoos Mayor Stu Wells, Boundary Similkameen MLA John Slater, Keremeos Mayor and regional hospital district chair Walter Despot, RDOS directors Alan Patton and Mark Pendergraft and two doctors from Oliver and Osoyoos lobbied the government last month for some sort of short to medium-term solution. “I feel positive about it. We made the pitch and something has come of it and, most importantly, it indicates that the province recognizes it’s a problem,” said Hampson.(more)