In the lead up Oct. 19 provincial election, The Wren surveyed Kamloops residents on what issues matter to them most. When asked what issues candidates should tackle, 78 per cent of respondents selected health care. Specifically, accessing cardiac care in Kamloops has been an ongoing issue.
Where and how to access certain types of healthcare, such as cardiac care in Kamloops is a challenge for many, and something advocate and fundraiser Al Patel would like to see change in this election.
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Patel has been a businessman in Kamloops since 1989, and started the ICCHA wish fund.
“We have now given over $1.4 million of the best equipment for the Royal Inland Hospital,” he tells The Wren.
In successfully establishing the ICCHA/Wish Coronary Care Unit in Oct. 2019, Patel was hopeful for the expanded healthcare services and cardiac care in Kamloops. However, since the COVID-19 pandemic, the unit has not been operational.
When the New Democratic Party won the election in 2020, the heart and cancer program was placed in Kelowna, something Patel deems a “political move.”
“They gave us what we call a void in healthcare,” he says.
A void in cardiac care in Kamloops
Patel estimates that about 1,000 people in Kamloops with cardiac-related conditions have to travel, in some cases by ambulance, to either Vancouver or Kelowna each year to access diagnostics and treatment that could be given in Kamloops. Kelowna General Hospital takes two people a day, normally through its emergency department, Patel adds.
This local “void” can cause worsening health conditions, financial strain and may require lengthy travel for those needing cardiac care in Kamloops, according to patients like Dean Pierobon.
Pierobon owns a couple of businesses in Kamloops and Kelowna, and has lived in Kamloops all his life.
About five years ago, he started suffering from atrial fibrillation (afib), a cardiac disorder that causes fatigue, heart palpitations, trouble breathing and dizziness. In the beginning it was random and not too impactful, but about a year ago, it got to the point where it became difficult to live an active lifestyle.
“Anytime I tried to be active, I would end up going into afib,” Pierobon says. “Then I ultimately ended up in the hospital where they’d have to do what they call a cardioversion to reset my heart.”
Pierobon had this procedure multiple times in the lead up to receiving his full diagnosis.
“There’s quite a process in order to get a full diagnosis. I went through that process here in Kamloops, and the cardiac ward was exceptional.”
Establishing his disease was the first step. What he couldn’t find in Kamloops was the operation he needed.
“It was a very long waiting list and process,” he recalls. “I needed what’s called an ablation, and unfortunately, the only options were Kelowna or St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver.”
Pierobon had to wait approximately 6 months in order to get that operation, and in the meantime had to be heavily medicated.
“I had to take a number of heart pills that have their own side effects. It limits your ability to lead an active lifestyle.”
After months of abbreviated activity and lots of medication, Pierbon had his operation Aug. 7 at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver.
“The service I got from the doctors and nurses was amazing, but frustrating when you’re suffering so much and you just have to wait the length of time.”
Luckily, Pierobon is one of the Kamloopsians with the resources to travel to Vancouver but acknowledges many others don’t.
“Our cardiac ward is exceptional, and the doctors are amazing,” he says of Kamloops. “They made me feel heard and cared about, and they did all the right things here. They have no other option but to put you on a list, and advocate for you as best as possible to get you into the system.”
Pierobon thinks the backlog is unfortunate considering the wait is long and people have to suffer through it.
“There is such a need, and there’s not enough places people can go. It would be nice if we could have done it in Kamloops.”
For those who are able to ride out the symptoms of their conditions with medication until space and time allows for an operation, the wait can be unbearable and terrifying. It often places a pause on other aspects of their lives, like Pierobon who’s active lifestyle came to a halt for months while he awaited his operation. For emergency cases however, the lack of resources could be the difference between life and death.
This matter came under the spotlight in 2017 when retired Kamloops neurologist Dr. Rajinder Joneja went into cardiac arrest and died at Royal Inland Hospital where he formerly worked after coming in with acute chest pain, leading his wife to call for better health services in Kamloops.
The Wren connected with one Kamloopsian, who requested to remain anonymous, about his experience. When his wife had a heart attack, she was taken to Royal Inland Hospital, where she spent the night before being taken in an ambulance to Kelowna.
On the two-hour drive, there was an extra vehicle following the ambulance.
“I talked to the paramedic and they said [the vehicle] was a heart specialist team following the ambulance in case something happened,” the man says.
In Kelowna they put two stents in his wife’s heart.
“it would have been nice if they could have done that in Kamloops,” he says. “Every person I know of that’s had a heart issue in Kamloops has been sent either Vancouver or Kelowna.”
Before his wife’s heart attack, they never questioned whether they could receive the proper medical care in Kamloops.
“It was quite an issue, for an ambulance, another vehicle, and then myself to drive myself to Kelowna. I guess it probably happens almost every day,” he says.
What candidates are saying about healthcare in Kamloops
In a May 2024 petition, Patel and others advocated for a comprehensive cardiac unit in Kamloops, and in the upcoming election he wants to see change.
“They have to reinstate the cardiac care unit that is operational,” he says. “It doesn’t matter whether it is the conservative, it doesn’t matter if it’s the NDP and whether it is the Green Party. They should have taken care of this a long time ago.”
The ICCHA Wish Fund’s Coronary Care Unit is not seeing the patients it was designed for, Patel says, something he hopes his petition and vote will change.
“It is a $700,000 investment from the community that went in to establish this cardiac care unit where four patients were monitored 24/7 and cardiologists could see or look after them, even remotely.”
Patel says the equipment has been unused and government officials should look into what happened.
“My question is, how many people have died now going from here to Kelowna?”
Patel says Royal Inland Hospital is a tertiary hospital, a hospital that provides specialized services after referrals from primary care, which should have basic care for when things like heart attacks happen.
“Instead, they have given us 240 Holter Monitors for cardiac patients to wear. It’s a ticking time bomb for these heart patients, we do not know when they will have an arrest,” Patel says. “I’ve had patients that have told me that they took them to Kelowna. They did the stent, and then they had to come back, and then they had to go back again.”
“It’s a waste of resources,” Patel says.
The Wren asked candidates questions on various topics, and when it came to healthcare Maddi Genn BC NDP candidate for Kamloops – North Thompson says she has “experienced the impact of not having access to doctors and specialists, I have seen firsthand the impact it has on families and our community.”
Randy Sunderman, the candidate for Kamloops Centre for the BC Green Party has proposed the introduction of the “Dogwood Model, a transformative plan to provide every resident with a ‘primary care home,’ ensuring accessible, team-based, longitudinal care,” he says.
The candidate for Kamloops Centre for the BC NDP Kamal Grewal says “our government has hired more than 800 doctors and thousands of nurses and health care workers, and we’ll aggressively continue to hire more – to shorten wait times, do more diagnostics, deliver more surgeries and staff public ERs.”
Read candidate’s responses in The Wren’s candidate questionnaire on healthcare and the drug crisis.
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