‘Outrageous and unacceptable’: Petition demands life-saving cardiac care in Kamloops
The lack of an acute Cardiac Care Diagnostic Lab at Royal Inland Hospital is costing lives, according to the RIH Foundation. In a joint media release, June 12, with the ICCHA Wish Fund and Thompson Rivers University, the foundation is demanding the province and Interior Health add...
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The lack of an acute Cardiac Care Diagnostic Lab at Royal Inland Hospital is costing lives, according to the RIH Foundation.
In a joint media release, June 12, with the ICCHA Wish Fund and Thompson Rivers University, the foundation is demanding the province and Interior Health add a catheterization lab for cardiac patients.
The hospital in Kamloops, which is considered a tertiary level hospital serving the surrounding region, must send people having heart attacks to Kelowna General Hospital in what the foundation said is a gruelling 2.5 hour ambulance ride away.
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https://www.change.org/p/save-our-hearts-at-royal-inland-hospital
“In urgent cases, patients must be flown to Kelowna or the Lower Mainland, wasting precious minutes that could mean the difference between life and death,” the release read.
The foundation said Kamloops is the third fastest growing city in Canada with an aging population in need of life-saving cardiac care. It said in the Thompson Regional District there are 250 heart monitors but only four beds for critically ill cardiac patients.
"Patients have died in the ER waiting for services and ambulances,” Wish Fund founder Al Patel said in the release.
“This current strategy of sending patients to Kelowna General Hospital is causing unnecessary delays and preventable deaths. Families are left grieving because of this broken system.”
Interior Health has told the foundation and its partners that Kamloops will have to wait until 2040 for the cath lab, some the foundation and its partners call “outrageous and unacceptable.”
An online petition has been created that demands the government bring an acute Cardiac Care Diagnostic Lab to Kamloops.
"This is a call to arms, Kamloops! We need your help to save lives from heart attacks — the #1 killer — where every second counts,” the release read.
Go here to sign the petition
https://www.change.org/p/save-our-hearts-at-royal-inland-hospital
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