RIH patients may be transferred in urgent response to weekend staffing shortages

While an urgent call for workers from throughout Interior Health has brought some “encouraging response,” Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops is looking for other options to cope with anticipated staffing shortages this coming weekend.

“We know the May long weekend is a busy weekend,” Tracey Rannie, Executive Director of Clinical Operations for the hospital, told iNFOnews.ca. “We know we have ongoing staff shortages so it’s a bit of an extraordinary situation. We are responding with some urgent actions.”

That includes an urgent call out to staff across Interior Health to work through the weekend and beyond.

READ MORE: Interior Health calling out-of-town healthcare staff to help at Kamloops hospital

Similar call outs have happened in the past due to COVID and things like flooding in Merritt and have worked effectively, Rannie said.

But she’s doing more than calling for outside help.

“We put on additional patient transfer staff because we do work as one network and so we work with other hospitals for support,” Rannie said. “In various situations, we’ll move patients to alternative facilities, if needed, but those decisions are not made lightly.”

Since some units, like non-emergency surgery, do not open over the weekend, all staff throughout the hospital have been asked if they’re willing to put in extra hours this weekend.

“We’re working on filling every shift and we’re also bringing additional support for frontline workers, like porters and others, to assist,” Rannie said.

Staff who come from outside of Kamloops may have to be put up in hotels and are entitled to pay at time-and-a-half their regular rate if they have to travel 40 kilometres or more to work at Royal Inland.

While there’s a cost to bringing staff in from outside of Kamloops, that’s not yet known because this is still a “fluid” situation, she said.

The staffing shortages at the hospital have been happening for some time because of things like COVID and other “stressors” such as wildfires and flooding last year, Rannie said.

“Staff are tired,” she said. “What I can tell you though, is they have gone above and beyond to support patient care and that’s something Kamloops needs to be proud of. We have an incredible community. I am very grateful to the frontline staff, the medical staff and the community for their ongoing support and dedication.”

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