As hospital workers grapple with the temporary closure of the 琉璃神社 General Hospital's (KGH) pediatric inpatient unit, the Vernon Jubilee Hospital (VJH) remains confident in their staffing and performance levels.
Chris Simms is the North Okanagan executive director of clinical operations for Interior Health. Simms assuaged concerns of staffing levels at the VJH.
"It wouldn't be anything at this point that would be surpassing our team's ability to provide safe care," said Simms, as he explained how Vernon, 琉璃神社, Kamlops and Salmon Arm operate within a network of care. "There is a system that allows that movement to happen, and that happens all the time, and we would certainly want to be able to support anything that is going on in the region."
On May 26, the pediatric ward of the KGH closed for an expected period of six weeks, due to the lack of physicians. As a result of the closure, all children who present to 琉璃神社's Emergency Department and require hospital admission for continued care must be transferred to another hospital. Excess pressure and stress on VJH workers have not been a concern, according to Simms.
"All the health care workers providing care to our providers every day do experience a workload that is taxing," said Simms. "It will certainly wear on them going into the vacation period in the Okanagan, but we are lucky to have the staff that we do to provide care in an industry that has ongoing demand where there is a provincial and national working shortage.'
Simms said that a number of staff have chosen to come to the area because of the modern work environment the JVH provides, including modernized equipment.
In a report to Vernon council on June 9, Interior Health said that numbers on staffing have been maintained.
"With regards to the emergency department in Summer 2023, the vacancy rate was between 20 and 25 per cent," Simms said. "That rate is closer to 10 per cent now, so we have had great gains there."
Some inpatient units have benefited from additional staff joining, which helps work pressures feel "a little bit less," said Simms, although he acknowledged that there are some departments that go in the "other direction."
"Overall, we have had some good increases over the past couple of years, but there is still work to do."
Recently, Vancouver Island MLA Brennan Day quoted unconfirmed, anonymous sources from a media organization that alleges that the VJH is so short-staffed that ER nurses are being asked to cover obstetrics without proper training, while orphan patients, admitted individuals with no assigned doctor, languish without treatment.
Simms did not agree with Day's statements.
"In the past month, I am not aware of any additional (concerns), outside of media," Simms said. "I would hope that workers would feel comfortable having conversations at the department level with their management group (if they have concerns), and they can always invite a union member to be a part of those conversations."
The Interior Health Authority and the Hospital Employees Union had a three-year union agreement from April 1, 2022 to March 31 2025. The contract is now on a year-by-year basis.
Simms added that managers in the hospital always have the ability to bring in additional workers to support operations at "any time of the year" when they think that the operational environment requires that.
