Neither the NDP or Liberals have seen fit to ensure that the hard working doctors, nurses, and support staff at Royal Inland have what they need for more timely patient care

A story in Kamloops This Week says:
It’s not quite the same as a shell game, but the pieces — stretchers with patients on them — are getting moved around almost as much some nights at Royal Inland Hospital.

Now, here's what I personally have to say, this is an outrage. Further, our hospital in Kamloops has indeed been be part of a chess game; one in which patients are the pawns. 

Government talks about how much is being done, but in fact very little, with the exception of the barest of necessities, gets attention.  AND ... this has happened under the watch of BOTH the NDP, and the BC Liberals.

What possible explanation can they provide for this?

The more nurses and doctors I talk with, the more families I meet who have seen first hand the conditions in our ER, and the more I read ... the more outraged I am becoming.

Neither the NDP or Liberals have seen fit to ensure that the hard working doctors, nurses, and support staff at Royal Inland have what they need for more timely patient care.

EVERY community deserves to have the best possible patient care that can be provided to the residents. 

This leads me to question why, in recent years, Kelowna and Vernon have been the recipients of $840 million dollars in upgrades to their hospitals (the vast majority spent in Kelowna) ... while Kamloops has received just $80 million.

Our community, despite an ever increasing population, has seen 50% of patients beds at RIH removed and closed in the past two decades.  This under governments led by both the NDP & BC Liberals.

What possible excuse can they have for this?  As far as I am concerned, there is NONE!  And I would have to say most people in Kamloops, no matter what the political leaning may be, agree.

The number of people being looked after at the ER has also increased by over 50 percent, and yet the needs to care for these Emergency patients has not kept pace.

We deserve better ... and I pledge right now, that when I am elected as your MLA, I will not rest until we get no less than our fair share.

Let's 'stay sharp' Kamloops!

I'm Peter Sharp – I'm a BC Conservative – and I believe in BC.

That's sucking money away from the front lines and we don't think it's right

One of our BC Conservative candidates had the following question asked of him by someone in the nursing field.  

QUESTION:
What is the BC conservatives stand on the issues the BC Nurses Union faces in the province, and in general what is their stand on unions. I am little concerned about the potential for union busting as a means to cut wages so that corporations can save money. Given I am a female in a predominately female profession if it weren't for the union I do not think I would be making the wage I am able to make now. 

RESPONSE:
As John Cummins pointed out at the budget unveiling, we're not interested in creating labour strife.

We're more interested in the fact that block funding has created a bureaucratic nightmare. In Interior Health alone there are over 2500 directors and managers. There's a manager of this and a director of that and an overseer of some sort for pretty much everything (recalling Monty Python's Minister of Silly Walks). The support structures build around that top-heavy bureaucracy are groaning with overstaffing. Almost half of them make over $100,000, in a geographical area in which the median income is around one third of that.

That's sucking money away from the front lines and we don't think it's right. That's where we're interested in streamlining. There are other associated problems with management that we're going to be looking into as well.  It is not the frontlines we're interested in ... that actually has to be strengthened.  

Now I actually did some research on staffing, with the Interior Health Authority, and here is what I found. There is a 9 person Senior Executive team which is responsible for day-to-day operations and management  ... plus a member Board of Directors ... plus 2,500 Directors and Manager.  

Total administration and management = 2,518 ... and that is for approximately 18,500 employees / staff. 

I'm not saying the answer is "No", however do we really need to have one management / administration person for every 6.3 employees? 

Salaries, of course, take up a huge bite from the health care budget -- including management.  It's difficult to find information, however in a story from the Kamloops Daily News, in January of last year, it noted the following:

Top staff at IHA (all figures exclude pension amounts)

• Chief Executive Director ... in 2010/11, his new position boosted his pay to $346,014, up 18 per cent from his old pay rate.