Interior Health Authority
Health authority hard hit by influenza last season
THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - The Southern Interior was hard hit by influenza last season with a jump in confirmed cases and deaths. But at the same time, the flu season here in the Interior Health Authority was typical of what the rest of Canada experienced. Dr. Gillian Frosst, an epidemiolgist with the heatlh authority, told the board...
Hospital laundry workers continue anti-privatization protest as decision looms
KELOWNA - The Hospital Employees Union continued its public pressure campaign against privatization of laundry services this week with a pair of rallies in the largest communities within the Interior Health Authority. Laundry workers sought to bring provincial politicians into the mix by protesting in front of the contituency offices of MLA Terry Lake in...
Interior Health CEO Rob Halpenny to resign
THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - After more than five years as chief executive officer, Dr. Robert Halpenny is resigning from the Interior Health Authority. The announcement that Halpenny will resign from his position, effective this fall, came today, June 9. “Over the five and a half years that Dr. Halpenny has served as CEO, he has driven transformative...
Salmonella outbreak proof that monitoring system works: Buckerfield’s CEO
KELOWNA - The recent spike of salmonella cases connected to live poultry sales is a good news story, proof the system works rather than an indictment of its failings, according to a local business. “Fourteen cases is a very small number and it was detected and caught and the public was actually protected from what...
Emergency service in Ashcroft only available on weekends
ASHCROFT - The emergency room in the Village of Ashcroft will only be open on weekends as the Interior Health Authority continues its employment search for doctors. The services sustained a series of cuts after the village’s second doctor quit, leaving it to reduced emergency hours throughout the week. Now the service is only available from...
Nine salmonella victims in B.C. Interior contracted from live chicks
THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - The Interior Health Authority is bearing the brunt of a B.C. salmonellosis outbreak connected to live poultry distributed from a hatchery in Alberta. The health authority has dealt with nine of 13 confirmed cases within the province and one of the two that required hospitalization, according to Althea Hayden, a public health physician....
Aboriginal health strategy hopes to improve care outcomes
THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - Tailoring healthcare for the 54,000 First Nations living within the Interior Health Authority will improve the quality of life and health outcomes and ultimately save money by reducing the need for services amongst a population that is overrepresented within the system. That’s the message behind the aboriginal health and wellness strategy adopted yesterday...
Health authority continues to monitor possible Ebola cases
THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - If the ongoing Ebola epidemic has a human face within the Interior Health Authority, it’s that of Patrice Gordon, a nurse practioner who returned from West Africa last December and promptly began displaying the early signs of of the disease. Gordon tested negative for the virus, but since then the health authority has...
Condoms in Kelowna high schools the goal of pilot project
KELOWNA - Condoms could soon be handed out to students around the Central Okanagan if a pilot project gains approval. The Central Okanagan School District is considering a request from the Interior Health Authority to allow local high schools to participate in a condom pilot project. The pilot project will supply participating schools within the...
Norovirus complaints traced back to Kamloops restaurant
KAMLOOPS - Fourteen people fell sick with norovirus after eating at a North Shore restaurant earlier this month, but Interior Health Authority says restaurant staff followed corrective measures suggested by investigators to prevent a re-occurence. After eating at Minos Greek Restaurant the weekend of May 1 and 2, three groups of diners came forward to...
Hospital laundry workers deliver petition to province in attempt to save jobs
KAMLOOPS – Members of the Hospital Employees’ Union took stand on the steps of the provincial legislature in an attempt to save almost 200 jobs. Yesterday morning, May 14, the laundry workers presented a petition of over 12,000 signatures to three NDP MLAs including opposition health critic Judy Darcy prior to it being tabled during...
B.C. health authority apologizes for ‘detaining’ woman for over two years
VICTORIA – A British Columbia man's claim that his wife was held hostage in a care facility has prompted a stinging report from the office of the province's ombudsperson and an apology from a health authority.
Kamloops councillors back hospital laundry workers
KAMLOOPS - The health of the hospital is so much more than just doctors and nurses and potential job cuts to laundry services could deeply hurt the hospital. This is the message Donisa Bernardo, the Hospital Employees' Union's financial scretary, brought to Kamloops city council Tuesday, April 14. The organization is concerned about the amount...
Double days off at Easter? You either got it or you don’t
KELOWNA - Other than politics and religion, is there anything that divides us more than who gets two days off at Easter and who doesn’t? Is there anything more confusing? Who gets time off around Easter pretty much comes down to the haves and the have-nots. If you’re just a regular working stiff, working 9...
Rally planned as union looks at potential job loss in face of laundry privatization
KAMLOOPS – About 150 to 175 workers who could potentially lose their jobs if Interior Health follows through on contracting out laundry services to private companies will be rallying alongside other union members next week. The protest, set to take place in Kamloops on March 31, is one of the ways Barbara Nederpel and the...