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IH working on plans for patients being admitted without docs at Cariboo Memorial Hospital

The plan for people needing inpatient care at Cariboo Memorial Hospital (CMH) is uncertain as the hospital deals with ongoing staff shortages.
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It is unclear what will happen with unattached patients needing hospital admission as staffing shortages continue to challenge Cariboo Memorial Hospital and Interior Health. (Angie Mindus photo - Williams Lake Tribune)

The plan for people needing inpatient care at Cariboo Memorial Hospital (CMH) is uncertain as the hospital deals with ongoing staff shortages.

Interior Health has said it does not want to announce a plan before it is finalized, however, they are working on what will happen with patients needing hospital admission who do not have a family physician.

There are currently an estimated 8,000 unattached patients in the area, and with another local family physician, Dr. Glenn Fedor, set to retire, this number may be going up.

With the large number of unattached patients in the community, staff to support inpatient care for those patients is problematic.

When patients are admitted to the hospital, their family physician would normally follow them and provide hospital coverage. While coverage of unattached patients was being done temporarily through a collaborative effort, with so many unattached patients and so few physicians, the current situation is no longer sustainable.

An agreement with local family physicians to come up with a plan for inpatients at CMH to allow Interior Health time runs out this month (March).

READ MORE: B.C. reduces district costs by over $36 million for Cariboo Memorial Hospital upgrade

READ MORE: Cariboo Memorial Hospital head doc says all parties working to find ER staffing solution



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Ruth Lloyd

About the Author: Ruth Lloyd

After moving back to Williams Lake, where I was born and graduated from school, I joined the amazing team at the Williams Lake Tribune in 2021.
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