A Kootenay mayor is speaking out after a patient died at a hospital in Cranbrook in January following unheeded requests for transport to another hospital facility.
David Wilks, who chairs the Kootenay East Regional Hospital District board, raised the tragic incident in a recent public meeting and vented frustration with the unique challenges faced by East Kootenay residents in accessing health care, while calling for an air ambulance — either fixed-wing or helicopter — to be based out of Cranbrook.
"We need air transport badly and we need to know that when we call for it, we're going to get it," Wilks said, in an interview following the meeting. "We need permanent air transport in Cranbrook, until such time as we can get a new hospital in Cranbrook, a new tower that can provide additional services that are not there now, or face the fact that this could happen again."
According to Wilks, there was a situation where a patient in critical condition wasn't able to get the care they needed at EKRH, so the team contacted BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) and were told that an aircraft would be in Cranbrook in under two hours to transport the patient to another facility.
The EKRH team requested that STARS — an air ambulance service based out of Calgary — be notified as a backup, however, that request was denied as they were assured that an aircraft dispatched by BCEHS would be there.
Wilks said the patient was readied for air transport that never arrived.
However, a BCEHS spokesperson confirmed a BCEHS Infant Transport Team "arrived at [EKRH] in connection with a transfer request for an infant who ultimately passed away."
The spokesperson expressed condolences and noted a multi-agency review involving BCEHS, BC Women’s Hospital and Interior Health is underway.
The incident highlights the challenges in having to head west to the Kelowna or Vancouver for higher acuity care, when Calgary and Lethbridge in Alberta are much closer, according to Wilks.
"We're the forgotten corner of the province and there are a lot of people in Victoria that don't like hearing that, but that's the truth," Wilks said. "They took advantage of the fact that we were able to go to Alberta forever and now we can't go. So when you can't go east and the only way you can go is west — even from Cranbrook — it's a six hour drive to Kelowna on a good day."
Wilks said he is hopeful that an agreement can be reached with STARS to come to EKRH and transfer patients westward to the Okanagan and the Lower Mainland if BCEHS resources are not available.
He also decried how it became "political" in Victoria, while being raised at a recent session of Question Period at the B.C. Legislature.
"What we can't have is politicians in Victoria arguing in the legislative assembly over something that is causing death," Wilks said. "We can't have that. We can make hay out of it all we want in the legislative assembly, but that doesn't help me as chair of the hospital board and it doesn't help anyone who is in critical care at the East Kootenay Regional Hospital.
"So I would ask that we stop the political grandstanding and get this done. Enough is enough, this is not a big ask. Have something here in Cranbrook, so that when the shit hits the fan, we know that we'll be able to get that patient out of here, because right now, we don't know."
