The upcoming ICCHA-Wish red carpet fundraising gala will be held in protest of the closure of the eponymous cardiac care unit at Royal Inland Hospital.
ICCHA-Wish co-founder Al Patel said he’s sounding the alarm over cardiac care at the Kamloops hospital due to the prolonged closure of the ward.
“Despite years of community fundraising, donations and advocacy, critical cardiac services remain incomplete at our tertiary hospital serving Kamloops and the surrounding areas,” Patel wrote in a recent news release.
The unit was opened in 2018 but closed in 2020 as staff shortages emerged and health care facilities struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Six years later, the unit remains closed. Patel, fed up with delays, said the system has failed, “big time.”
ICCHA-Wish was founded with the heart in mind, but prior its funding and the opening of the ICCHA-Wish Cardiac Care Unit (CCU) at RIH in 2018, it also funded a host of other items, including X-ray machines, neo-natal equipment, ultrasound machines, monitors and more.
Patel said the organization has raised $2.6 million for the hospital and related causes over nearly two decades, primarily through the gala. When it is held later this month, he said a table will be waiting with an open invitation to Premier David Eby, Minister of Health Josie Osborne and leaders from Interior Health, Cardiac Services BC and Royal Inland Hospital.
“I want everybody to see that we have invited them and there’s a table waiting for them. Otherwise, it will sit with empty chairs,” Patel told the Chronicle.
Reached by the Chronicle, RIH lead Gerry Desilets acknowledged the closure of the unit and pledged to continue working closely with Patel and other stakeholders.
“It was very unfortunate that we had to close it at the time, but it was a very challenging staffing time, in the middle of COVID, with a lot of pressure on everybody,” Desilets said.
Desilets said plans are underway to reopen the unit, but could not give any sort of timeline to do so. He pointed to staff retention issues and a long runway to train or recruit the specialized nurses required to operate the unit.
Currently, patients requiring procedures like stents or cardiac surgery must travel to Kelowna, but Desilets said that, otherwise, the majority of cardiac care can be done in Kamloops, just not in the CCU. Instead, patients are receiving care in the ICU or ER in the interim.
Desilets also said the CCU space is being used, but not for cardiac care.
“It might not be for exactly that patient population they were hoping for, but it’s still providing care for the community and giving people a beautiful, excellent place to receive care,” he said.
Desilets said at the end of the day, everyone wants to see cardiac care expanded in Kamloops, but that it has to be done in a sustainable way. He said metrics like patient numbers and demand based on population are key factors to determine when services should expand.
“I know they are advocating because they want care closer to home, because we all do,” he said.
The gala will be held on April 24. For more information, head to the ICCHA/Wish website at iwishfund.com.