Re: Article in the CR Mirror re added Lab outpatient hours contracted to Life Labs on Saturdays.
The announcement from Island Health that Lab outpatient hours are contracted to Life Labs on Saturdays is in addition to a recent announcement of increases to weekday appointment availability at our Campbell River Hospital Lab.
If those hours added to Life Labs (a private for-profit company) were added to the hospital lab with decent staffing, the profits would go back into the public system. On a seemingly daily occurrence there are signs (attached) referring to our hospital lab. One refers to the increased hours but the other signs say they are unable to take any more patients due to short staffing which apparently happens early in the day. So nothing is really fixed in spite of our (and many other') never-ending quest for five years to see the lab improved and restored to the services we used to have which worked very well. Unfortunately, all efforts fell on deaf ears.
This lab has deteriorated for five years and putting bandaids on the problems does not fix them. All outpatient specimens are couriered to be analyzed elsewhere. Countless patients are still inconvenienced by being unable to access lab services. Adequately staffing and maintaining a fully-functioning lab in our hospital should have happened some time ago for a hospital that serves 54,000+ people.
The buck stops with the Ministry of Health who is responsible for health boards to have adequate lab services in our hospitals. To allow our lab to deteriorate to this degree is not acceptable. The lack of staffing was created by VIHA, moving some to the Comox Valley Lab and some left due to a toxic environment.
This is a very important issue for the pending provincial election. It is obvious that an external, independent investigation into the contract with the Vancouver Island Clinical Pathology Consultants Corporation and VIHA as well as the management of VIHA is warranted, necessary and long overdue.
Cancer patients are being notified that their treatments at our hospital are cancelled and delayed due to lack of staff! How many other patients are having their tests or treatments delayed? Enough is enough!
Long Term Care is abysmal with a 2-3 year wait for Campbell River, much less elsewhere. Home Care is understaffed and a semblance of the service it was before VIHA took it over and gutted it. Patients are in hallways with nowhere to go.
It is long past time we need to get people at the helm who will ensure that Campbell River and the North Island receive equal quality health care as provided by hospitals south of Campbell River. How can we try to attract people to locate to our city when we do not have the resources needed in providing quality health care?
From a local doctor: "I have become jaded with Island Health and feel it needs an independent audit since what they are doing and not doing north of the malahat is so bad.
"You are not the only group that has noticed."
Population of Vancouver island:
80% of Island Health budget spent south of the Malahat
460,000 Nnorth of the Malahat
430,000 south of the Malahat
Lois Jarvis, Richard Hagensen and Joanne Banks
On behalf of Citizens for Quality Health Care