IH Penalty Could Help VJH Bed Plea

Written by Peter McIntyre  107.5 KISSFM Thursday, 09 February 2012 13:30
Interior Health's failure to meet waiting time targets for certain surgeries, could help the case for getting more bed funding for Vernon's hospital.  The agency will have 3.4 million in funding withheld by the province after not meeting targets for hip, knee and cataract  procedures last year.  Vernon mayor Rob Sawatzky --a retired physician-- says adding 30 to 40 beds in the new Polson Tower, would help ease the back-log.  "It would seem to be a logical conclusion that if IHA can supply more beds, they can provide these services more timely, and avoid the penalty."  The mayor says the penalty is not necessarily a one time thing. "If they can't meet time standards in the future and get these things done on time, they will continue to get these penalties." Sawatzky along with the mayors of Coldstream and Salmon Arm, MLA Eric Foster and Area B director Bob Fleming, met with IHA officials Wednesday to stress the need for new beds. "There's no question we are under-bedded by any stat you use. We are at least 30 to 40 beds under-bedded." The Health Ministry says the province withholds 10 per cent of the health authorities' budget for hip-replacement, knee-replacement and cataract surgeries at the beginning of the fiscal year and pays it out at the end of the year provided they have met the wait-times target for those surgeries. The target is that no more than 10 per cent of clients wait longer than 26 weeks for hip-or knee-replacement surgery. For cataract surgery, the target is no more than 10 per cent waiting longer than 16 weeks and no cases waiting longer than a year.