Emergency care services improving in Salmon Arm, Okanagan

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The funding was approved on Oct. 10, for Shuswap Lake General Hospital in Salmon Arm and for Merritt’s Nicola Valley Hospital. The funding for the South Okanagan General Hospital in Oliver was approved on Sept. 29.

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Interior Health is reportedly working on the service contracts needed for the hospitals to recruit and compensate the physicians who will be working extra hours to provide patient care in the emergency rooms, which is different from the existing fee-for-service model that sees physician pay based primarily on the number of patients they see in a day.

“We’re pleased to be moving forward with new compensation models for physicians in our rural communities,” Susan Brown, president and CEO, Interior Health, said.

“This is another step forward to stabilizing health services for rural residents as it will support our recruitment efforts going forward.”

The province said the new contracts build on short, medium and long-term efforts from the government and Interior Health to stabilize emergency-department services in rural and remote areas.

“This investment will help ensure patients have stable access to emergency care, while we know there is more to do,” Dix said.

“Through our Health Human Resources Strategy, we are also committed to train, recruit and retain more people into our workforce, including providing incentives to attract physicians working in rural communities such as Merritt, Salmon Arm and Oliver.”