CELEBRATING 12 YEARS
BRINGING “ROYAL” SERVICE BACK TO OUR HOSPITAL
T
oday, I salute everyone who believed in the ICCHA/Wish dream to “Give Back to our Community” from where we have enriched ourselves in health, wealth and happiness. Our Drive-Thru Dinner on Friday November 13th, 2020 was held at Colombo Lodge to raise $300,000 for the much needed 3D-Echocardiogram machine at Royal Inland Hospital. It was a huge success despite the Covid-19 pandemic. Time and again, our community has come together to support our missions to improve healthcare for our region and I sincerely thank you. The Royal Inland Hospital (RIH) as we know was officially opened in 1912 by the Duke of Connaught (Queen Victoria’s seventh child). It was the first hospital to be built in the BC interior. Back then, people were afraid of hospitals and doctors sometimes had house calls that took them hundreds of miles away, travelling by train, horse or even on foot. The RIH has come a long way since then, but we can’t help question when did our hospital lose its “Royal” status? For many years, we have had to watch Kelowna General Hospital expand and vital services moved there by the BC governments in power. Slowly but surely, RIH became the rest stop for critical patients, waiting for them to be transported to either Kelowna or Vancouver. We were promised a fullfledged cancer or a cardiac care centre but both were awarded to Kelowna. This meant cancer and cardiac patients from our region had no choice but to travel to Kelowna by bus or ambulance for treatment and spend the whole day waiting for a ride home the same day! How can we call this a “Royal” service? However, with donations from our community, we raised over $1.4million dollars since 2007, First ICCHA/Wish established the Cancer Education Room at RIH from where cancer patients could talk to their oncologists in Kelowna or Vancouver rather than travelling the distance to discuss the outcome of their treatments.
“Have a heart to give, for a heart to live.”
In 2008, the ICCHA/Wish Fund replaced 20-year old heart monitors that were used for patients after surgery in the Post Anesthetic Recovery(PAR) room. How can we call this “Royal” treatment when technological advancements already existed in this area of care but the department had to use outdated equipment? Kidney stones are painful enough without the added pain of Interior Health failing to provide a Lithotripter machine for our doctors to remove them. Again, the ICCHA/Wish Fund donated over $100,000 to fund the first Lithotripter equipment in the BC Interior. One begins to see the pattern that how can the doctors provide “Royal” service when our government does not provide them with proper tools and equipment? Many voids have been filled by the ICCHA/Wish Fund to improve healthcare for patients at Royal Inland Hospital. When classified as a “tertiary” hospital, I feel we are constantly being overlooked by the powers who favor Kelowna’s development over our own “Royal” Inland Hospital. By September 30th, 2019, with the community supporting our missions, we were successful in establishing the “ICCHA/Wish Coronary Care Unit (CCU)” at RIH. This is where four cardiac patients, after being stabilized, can be monitored 24/7 in dedicated rooms using state of the art Esprezzon Cardiac Monitoring System. They are cared for under the supervision of 7 specialized cardiologists and trained cardiac nurses. This CCU is just the first stepping-stone towards our ultimate goal of establishing a Catheterization Lab. Without the Cath Lab, over a thousand cardiac patients per year will still be transported to Kelowna by ambulances for non invasive diagnostics and treatments. How is the added stress, inconvenience, costs and added risk of travelling during the winter, a “Royal” service to patients and the families of our communities? “It took about one hour from start to finish for Brad’s angiogram. For an hour’s treatment, we had to spend 3 days in
Kelowna! It’s frustrating to know we have the resources, but we just don’t have the tools,” Chantelle Van Goor – wife of cardiac patient, Brad Van Goor (Kamloops). The ICCHA/Wish Fund has been asking the government and Interior Health to approve the much needed services of a Cath Lab for our community because of our growth and aging population. This will allow cardiologists at RIH to perform accurate diagnostic services for cardiac patients that can be treated locally in Kamloops to receive the “Royal” treatment they deserve! During the recent snapelection, candidates were asked if a catheterization lab should be included in Royal Inland Hospital’s new patient-care tower. Kamloops-South Thompson B.C. Liberal candidate Todd Stone said he supports Patel and anything to advance and improve health care in Kamloops and NDP candidate Anna Thomas said she would also support a cath lab. “If that’s what the community wants, that’s what we should action,”she said. Yes, we are ready with the prerequisites for the Cath Lab and we must hold the government accountable for the welfare of all, not only the Interior South where Kelowna is located! Thank you all who gave from their heart to save a heart! With your support, the flame to make a change will never die.
Al Patel
Founder of ICCHA/Wish Fund
“Have a heart to give, for a heart to live.” 7
