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Inpatient situation will stay same over this weekend at Cariboo Memorial Hospital

Interior Health says nothing will change over the weekend for patients needing to be admitted at Cariboo Memorial Hospital (CMH).
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Cariboo Memorial Hospital continues to face staffing issues as staff and administration work on a plan for dealing with patients needing to be admitted to hospital who do not have a family physician. (Angie Mindus photo - Williams Lake Tribune)

Interior Health says nothing will change over the weekend for patients needing to be admitted at Cariboo Memorial Hospital (CMH).

“Interior Health commits to notifying the community in advance of any changes to normal services,” said Diane Shendruk, vice president of clinic operations for Interior Health North in an email.

Administration and staff continue to try and come up with a plan to deal with a lack of family doctors to manage unattached patients at CMH.

“Recognizing the potential impact to patients and loved ones, Interior Health and the Ministry of Health are exploring every possible solution to prevent changes to Williams Lake inpatient medical care,” said Shendruk.

There are currently an estimated 8,000 unattached patients in the area, and with another local family physician, Dr. Glenn Fedor, set to retire, this number may be going up.

With the large number of unattached patients in the community, staff to support inpatient care for those patients is problematic.

When patients are admitted to the hospital, their family physician would normally follow them and provide hospital coverage. While coverage of unattached patients was being done temporarily through a collaborative effort, with so many unattached patients and so few physicians, the current situation is no longer sustainable.

An agreement with local family physicians to come up with a plan for inpatients at CMH to allow Interior Health time runs out this month (March).

The emergency department at CMH remains open and Shendruk said they “want to thank physicians and staff in Williams Lake for their ongoing commitment to local patients.”

She also acknowledged local medical and operational leadership working to maintain access to local services.

READ MORE: B.C. reduces district costs by over $36 million for Cariboo Memorial Hospital upgrade

READ MORE: Cariboo Memorial Hospital head doc says all parties working to find ER staffing solution

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Ruth Lloyd

About the Author: Ruth Lloyd

After moving back to Williams Lake, where I was born and graduated from school, I joined the amazing team at the Williams Lake Tribune in 2021.
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