Lyonel Doherty
Oliver Chronicle
A respected rural physician in Oliver has expressed faith in how South Okanagan General Hospital is providing 24-hour access to emergency health care.
Dr. Alan Ruddiman, former president of Doctors of BC, commented on the latest move to have physicians work in the emergency department on an on-call basis during evening shifts.
Ruddiman said one media report suggested there was a reduction in overnight emergency services, which struck him as “alarmist.”
Ruddiman has been a rural physician his entire life, practicing in Oliver for 23 years. He was an active member in the SOGH emergency department from 1996 to 2010, and is now the co-chair of the Provincial Standing Committee on Rural Issues.
Ruddiman said patients and citizens of B.C. should be able to expect a high level of emergency health care regardless of where they live.
He said the only time he would be very concerned about SOGH is if there was a reduction in reliable and available access to emergency services. But he has not seen that and has not heard anything from Interior Health regarding a reduction of these services.
When Ruddiman worked in the emergency room, the doctors took an equal number of shifts, a situation that was manageable due to lower patient volumes in the 1990s. But those volumes have increased, he pointed out.
He recalled that physicians working in the ER never had to be physically on site at all times during their shifts. If it was quiet, they would go home and the nurse would be available to triage patients to assess their medical needs in order of priority (not unlike today).
Doctors were available on a call-back basis, which is the standard in most rural hospitals, Ruddiman said. In other words, they don’t stand around waiting for patients to show up. (Patients still have immediate access to a nurse on site.)
He acknowledged there has been a change in the physician population in the South Okanagan, adding that not all doctors live in Oliver and Osoyoos.
The other fact is fewer physicians want to participate in covering the ER shifts due to their health or family commitments.
Just because a physician needs to be called back to the hospital doesn’t mean the emergency room is not open 24 hours a day, Ruddiman said.
“We never close . . . we don’t turn the lights off.”
There were countless nights he worried about his patients, so he chose to sleep on a couch or in an overnight room in the hospital.
Any concern that Ruddiman has about health care relates to the fact that many people in B.C. still do not have a family doctor. As a result, these people must utilize walk-in clinics or hospital emergency departments. He believes the focus should be on changing this situation.
In the meantime, Ruddiman said it’s reassuring to hear about the upgrades coming to the emergency department at SOGH. The renovations include a new waiting and triage area, a separate public emergency department entrance, and relocation of admitting services.
A recent building permit with the Town of Oliver indicates the value of the “office reno” to be $691,000. This is a rough construction cost, said Interior Health communications consultant Karl Hardt.
He noted the overall project investment is approximately $1 million, which includes design, equipment and administration.
He said the design is now complete and they are in the process of selecting a contractor, which should be on the site in the next couple of months.
Hardt said project completion is anticipated for fall/winter of 2019.
