Rally Focuses On Eye Clinic

By Corey Fischer

Apr 24, 2019 | 3:26 PM

A rally will be held next week aimed at keeping the Lions Vision Centre in Armstrong.

There has been talk Interior Health could move the facility to Vernon Jubilee Hospital due to a shortage of anesthesiologists.

“We just kind of heard what we thought was a rumour, but checking it out a little further, it was definitely more than just a rumour. There had been some meetings, discussions and proposals with Interior Health to possibly move the clinic to the Vernon hospital,” says Armstrong Lions Club President Diann Boyd.

Boyd says they were told Interior Health has not been able to get an anesthesiologist out to Armstrong occasionally, which has led to rescheduling.

“But that wasn’t new. That had been done even years before, but the newer management decided that it would be a possibility to move the clinic,” Boyd tells Beach Radio News.

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Boyd says nine Lions clubs in the region, have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to open and run the clinic since it opened in 2001.

“We put that facility there to start with,” she states.

A society ran the clinic for the first nine years and then disbanded.

Boyd feels there is no reason to move it, noting it serves five-thousand people a year with four ophthalmologists providing cataract, glaucoma and other day surgeries, and has state of the art equipment.

“It’s not because there is anything wrong with the clinic.”

A rally will be held Monday, April 29, at 2 p.m. at the Pleasant Valley Health Centre at 3800 Patten Drive.

“We want to raise the awareness in the community with the public. There is an awful lot of people who are not aware this has come up.”

Boyd says mayors and councils from Salmon Arm to Lumby all support keeping the centre where it is.

“Surely we can come up with a better idea to keep one anesthesiologist there instead of moving the whole clinic which will affect travelling for five thousand clients,” who she says come from around the region.

Opponents say the move would lead to increased wait times, extra travel, loss of services funded by local service groups and patients having to pay parking fees at Vernon’s hospital.

Interior Health’s Health Services Administrator North Okanagan, Richard Harding, says the centre is currently experiencing a shortage of anesthesiology resources.

“This is a challenge not just for the interior, but across BC and Canada wide, so right now, we’re exploring options to address these staffing challenges, and obviously our priority is to find the best solution for patients in the North Okanagan who require this procedure,” Harding tells Beach Radio News.

When asked again if I-H is considering moving the facility, Harding said: “No. There’s no decisions been made in regards to whether or not we’re considering moving.”

by Corey Fischer