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<\/p>\n\u201cI think the really important thing that we want to highlight is that the health of our residents is directly linked to the health of our economy,\u201d notes Kamloops Chamber executive director Acacia Pangilinan. <\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
Their perspective cites struggles to access maternity care, struggles to access family physicians, the hospital still not having a cardiac catheterization lab, and the design of the cancer centre not having the same equipment as other sites. <\/p>\n
Pangilinan says those factors do influence perception of healthcare availability and it could make or break somebody\u2019s decision to come to Kamloops for a job. <\/p>\n
\u201cThings like healthcare access really make a difference for people to decide to move here. It\u2019s also impacting our businesses\u2019 ability to retain talent. We\u2019ve heard from a number of businesses who have employees who are considering leaving the community because they don\u2019t feel like Kamloops will be able to support their life goals.\u201d <\/p>\n
The TRHD board says thousands of residents outside of Kamloops often commute to Royal Inland for care. Any dip in service availability that would force people to drive further isn\u2019t just inconvenient \u2014 the weather-influenced highways in this region add to the risk. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe talk about summertime but we look at the middle of winter and some people will just forgo health care,\u201d notes TRHD board chair Mike O\u2019Reilly. \u201cThat\u2019s the biggest worry and concern, that if somebody does need help, they\u2019re going to pass that up because they don\u2019t want to make the drive in.\u201d <\/p>\n
The latest staffing shakeup at RIH specifically concerns future medical treatment options for anyone with a uterus. It\u2019s now the latest addition in the hospital district\u2019s push for an equitable spread of medical support in the Interior. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think, over the last two or three years, we have talked a lot about equitable health care through the Thompson Regional Hospital District. Whether that\u2019s cancer services, emergency services \u2014 not just for Royal Inland Hospital but for the surrounding areas. But here, we are talking about gender equity health care. And how we got here in 2025 is beyond me,\u201d adds O\u2019Reilly.<\/p>\n
Since news of the OB-GYNs\u2019 decision was made public, O\u2019Reilly says the hospital district scheduled a meeting with Health Minister Josie Osbourne, Interior Health CEO Sylvia Weir and Interior Health Board Chair Dr. Robert Halpenny. <\/p>\n
\u201cPart of the conversations we will be having with Minister Osbourne and Sylvia Weir and Dr. Halpenny is what are the levels that are required for a tertiary hospital? What is a tertiary hospital to them?\u201d said O\u2019Reilly. \u201cWe can\u2019t continue to be a feeder hospital to Kelowna General.\u201d <\/p>\n
Those are conversations the broader community hopes will adjust the course at Royal Inland. <\/p>\n
\u201cEnough is enough, right? We need to really all come together and try to address this. It\u2019s really impacting the morale of our community, not having this access,\u201d adds Pangilinan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI think the really important thing that we want to highlight is that the health of our residents…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-222734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}