Health care continues to rank as the top concern of constituents in the two provincial ridings in the East Kootenay, for several reasons.

Columbia River-Revelstoke MLA Doug Clovechok and Kootenay East MLA Tom Shypitka addressed the Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) board of directors Sept. 8, providing updates on issues pertinent to the region.

The hour-long discussion lingered heavily around health care issues, inducing an impassioned plea from Kootenay East Regional Hospital District (KERHD) Board Chair David Wilks regarding no traction on convincing the provincial government of the importance of radiology being added to a new tower coming to East Kootenay Regional Hospital (EKRH).

Health care concerns are at the top of Columbia River-Revelstoke constituents’ minds, “no question,” Clovechok said.

“There is no way around it. This province is in an undeniable crisis when it comes to health care. Wait times are abysmal, we hear from people who are waiting up to a year to see a specialist. It’s resulting in horrible outcomes,” he said.

“Patients are being transferred from one hospital to another hospital for procedures,” he said, pointing out current troubles in Surrey, including a recent protest.

“When is the last time you ever heard doctors protest anything? That’s how serious this has become.”

MLA Clovechok noted one in five British Columbians do not have a family doctor.

“And our population is growing consistently in Columbia River-Revelstoke and there is no doctors. People cannot find a doctor and that is a huge issue,” he said, adding “Alberta is in the same pickle.”

Clovechok told the board he believes the province needs a government minister whose focus is on rural health care and has spoken to BC United leader Kevin Falcon about it.

“When it comes to the Lower Mainland and rural British Columbia, they’re eating the steak and we’re getting the bones. And that’s got to change.”

Cross-border health care with Alberta remains an important topic, Clovechok said, noting he’s trying to set up a face-to-face meeting with Alberta’s new Health Minister to try and re-establish relationships “with our colleagues in Alberta.”

He noted, “there is a lot of politics involved in this.”

That led him to “the Washington (state) side of things,” in which the provincial government is sending cancer patients to Bellingham, Wa. for treatment.

“This is a bit of a rub for me. From a patient’s perspective it’s great, they’re going to get taken care of. We’re paying US dollars for those services. And we are also paying for all the expenses that are incurred by our cancer patients going to the state of Washington. We don’t have any data on that because we can’t get it from the government,” he said.

Yet, he told the board, East Kootenay residents having to travel to Kelowna for medical care are not being reimbursed for expenses.

“Again, there is an inequity.”

Clovechok singled out KERHD Board Chair Wilks (District of Sparwood Mayor) for “doing a great job” trying to bring radiology to the East Kootenay Regional Hospital when Interior Health builds another tower in the facility.

In terms of radiation, Kelowna and Vancouver are over-subscribed, patients have to be sent to Washington” because we can’t service the need we have but we are not willing to look at the opportunity when we have one staring us in the face here in Cranbrook with a new tower going in for oncology and renal and not even look at radiation,” Wilks said. “It’s insane why you wouldn’t even at least look at it. We offered IHA an additional $100,000 for planning for a radiation unit and they won’t even take it because what they are saying is the province did not authorize it to even look at radiation. The province, not IHA, because the IHA takes their marching orders from the province anyways.”

Wilks told the MLAs,” I need your help, everyone’s help to get some form of additional service in Cranbrook, whether it’s radiation or something else along those lines because we’ve got one kick at the cat here. We’re building a new tower and we’ve got one kick at this because once it is built they won’t look at us. And we’re told the planning will be done in November and we’re not even part of it.

“We’re 40% of the funding and we don’t even get to sit in on the planning. It’s crazy!”

He thanked the MLAs for arranging a meeting with Health Minister Adrian Dix earlier in the year.

“Nice conversation. I am being polite here. Nice conversation but we ain’t getting crap done. We need to get stuff done and I’m a get-stuff-done kind of guy and I am not happy siting around and November is coming pretty quick and we need to intervene somehow because this will be a sad day for the East Kootenay if we can’t at least say that we gave it 100% at radiation and right now we’re not giving it 100%. There is not much more I can do.

“I’ve found a corporate donor with a lot of money. We’ve had meetings with Minister Dix but it’s just falling on deaf ears. And it’s starting to piss me off. Sorry for the bad language but I don’t know what else to do. It went to the top dog, unless we can get a meeting with the Premier.”

They MLAs said they would try to arrange such a meeting.

“I’m hearing the frustration of Director Wilks and most likely the rest of the directors on the board,” MLA Shypitka said before outlining previous steps taken to try and obtain a linear accelerator several years back, “which was coming of age in Kelowna but was still usable and I think the price tag at that time was three to five million dollars.”

He noted another $600,000 would have been needed for accompanying infrastructure and technicians to support the equipment, necessary for a radiology unit.

“We had a good conversation going at that time with Dean McKerracher (former KERHD Chair) and we had a meeting set in Kelowna and we got halfway there when Interior Health cancelled and cancelled the conversations quite promptly. I am glad Director Wilks has picked up the ball and has run with it faster and harder than I could hope for,” he said.

As to the issue East Kootenay residents not being reimbursed for travel expenses to Kelowna etc., Shypitka pointed out that the Travel Assistance Program (TAP), available for British Columbians for medical transportation, “only really applies in the Lower Mainland for those with bussing but as you know we lost our Greyhound services so there’s no bussing. It also applies to Ferry travel and there’s not too many ferries around the East Kootenay. It pays for rapid transit and we don’t have of those around here either, so essentially people in the East Kootenay have no assistance at all what-so-ever. They’ve got to find their way there and back unless it’s an emergency and they get there but they don’t get back. It’s really a shot system. I feel the frustration.”

The MLAs also told the regional board they were wowed by the regional Emergency Operations Centre staff during the recent wildfire scares.

Both stated praise for BC Minister of Emergency Services Bowinn Ma for doing an excellent job of communication during the province’s worst fire season in history.

“I have to give credit where credit is due. Minister Ma has been outstanding,” he said.

However, Clovechok said, “The staff you have here could give those people lessons. We get an email at 11:30 at night means somebody is at work.”

Other issues remaining important to Columbia River-Revelstoke and Kootenay East residents are water and ongoing drought, land use management in relation to ATV usage on leased Crown land, permitting, housing, grazing tenures, the need for a wildlife management plan with local input, archaeology reviews, the Radium bighorn sheep overpass, wildfire interface support, Kicking Horse Canyon highway closures and Air B&Bs.

Lead image: Columbia River-Revelstoke MLA Doug Clovechok addresses the regional board Sept. 8. Ian Cobb/e-KNOW photos

Ian Cobb/e-KNOW

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