It’s not the long-term solution everyone has been hoping for, but the province’s $200,000 investment to ensure physicians are available around-the-clock to provide emergency medical care at the South Okanagan General Hospital in Oliver is good news, said Boundary-Similkameen MLA John Slater.
The funding announcement is part of the province’s Rural Emergency Enhancement Fund (REEF).
“This will get us through the remainder of 2012 and there’s no question is a short-term program,” said Slater. “But I promise as the local MLA to ensure this funding is made continuous to ensure citizens of the area have continual 24-hour care.”
To date, families in 36 communities across British Columbia will benefit from increased funding to strengthen public access to emergency services, said Slater. The province announced $10 million in July 2011 to provide financial assistance of up to $200,000 a year for rural, fee-for-service physicians who commit to ensure reliable public access to emergency services is maintained at their local hospital. This is a continuation of that funding, said Slater.
“This is short-term and does get us through 2012 and I’ll be doing everything I can, along with Interior Health and the Ministry of Health, to find a long-term solution to ensure we can provide physicians for 24-hour emergency room continual care moving forward,” said Slater.
Funding can be spent to hire additional physicians, incentives for working weekends, holidays or night shifts and health authority-approved equipment purchases, said Lorraine Unruh, acute area director for Interior Health.
Unruh said Interior Health is very pleased with the funding announcement as local citizens demand around-the-clock emergency care at the Oliver hospital.
“This will allow us to have programs in affect for things like having a second physician in the emergency room when one doctor is already working with an emergency patient,” she said.
The money will also be used to act as an incentive to attract local physicians to the hospital in Oliver who might otherwise go to Penticton, said Slater.
“It will be incentive funding for physician commitment to the rural hospital and doing extra shifts if necessary,” he said. “We only have so many physicians in the South Okanagan and we want to make sure they are there when we need them, so that’s what this funding is all about.”
The funding formula for the $200,000 allows for an extra 12 shifts every three months for physicians working in the emergency room, said Slater.
The reality is patients seeking medical assistance “demand instant care” which is often impossible when there is only one doctor on shift and the additional funding is designed to ensure this doesn’t happen, said Slater. “That’s why we’ve put together this plan for small, rural community hospitals.”
Slater said he and other MLAs will continue working with the British Columbia Medical Association and the provincial government for a long-term solution to retain more physicians at rural hospitals around the province for the remainder of 2012.
The assistance is part of a series of targeted investments, totaling $180 million, to enhance patient care as outlined in the 2009 Memorandum of Agreement between the Province and the BCMA. Approximately half of this assistance is directed toward improving patient access to services, while the remainder is for targeted labour market adjustments to improve recruitment and retention. This funding is within the existing fiscal plan.
The program was created by the Joint Standing Committee on Rural Issues, which includes the Province and the BCMA), set up to enhance rural health care delivery across B.C. Local physicians were encouraged to work together as a team and apply for funding.
