Work underway to redevelop Cariboo Memorial Hospital in Williams Lake phase one is on target for completion in fall of 2026.
"It's lovely to see the progress that's being made on the new tower," said Karen Cooper, executive director of clinical operations, Interior Health West.
The redevelopment will make a big difference in the hospital, especially the emergency department, she said.
"Our emergency department will be going from our current 11 bays up to 23 bays and then of course the addition of eight new medical beds in phase one and eight more in phase two to really ensure that health care services in Williams Lake grow as the demand in the community and is able to meet that demand so folks can access care closer to home."
Cooper was part of a delegation at the Cariboo Chilcotin Regional Hospital District board meeting Friday, Aug. 16, along with Diane Shendruk, vice president, clinical operations, IH North, and Dr. Jacques Neuhoff, chief of staff, Cariboo Memorial Hospital.
Primary care clinic
In May a primary care clinic opened in Williams Lake and Cooper said all the positions have been filled.
Staff are choosing to work there because they want to work in a model of team-based care, Cooper said, adding there are nursing, social work, dietitian, clinician and respiratory therapy services available at the clinic.
"We have Dr. [Lorne] Granberg working there one day a week," she said.
ER closures
The Urgent Primary Care Centre announced for 2025 will help alleviate some of the demands on the emergency department as well as residents in the community who do not have a health care practice provider.
Cooper said the experience of ER closures at Cariboo Memorial Hospital is something happening in many other sites across B.C.
She is part of a group in the province dedicated to stabilizing emergency departments.
CMH has a very busy emergency department with an average of 60 visits per day, she said.
Nursing positions are at 60 per cent vacancy presently and Cooper expressed gratitude to the permanent physicians and nurses who cover their baselines and often pick up extra shifts on their day's off.
"They are committed to having our hospital open as much as possible."
There have also been efforts to bring in casual staff from across Interior Health and by using the emergency health provider registry, which has resulted in 12 nurses coming into Williams Lake from across B.C. who have covered 43 shifts in total so far.
Recruitment and retention
Incentives have been put in place to attract new health care staff with $20,000 signing bonuses and retaining existing staff with a quarterly bonus of $2,000 per full-time employee up to $8,000 a year.
Dr. Neuhoff addressed incentives to attract more physicians.
"We have tried to make our community more attractive with incentives for locums and for our local physicians, not just focusing on recruitment, but also on retention of the physicians working in our hospital."
Cooper said while people are leaving positions, there has also been a strong inflow.
"Everyone that leaves, we do an exit interview, so we can understand the reasons why they are leaving," said Cooper. "There are still overall more people coming to work in Williams Lake than are leaving."
There have been 11 hires in a single quarter and more are arriving in September.
Dr. Neuhoff said a lot of recruitment has been done around physicians with successes this past year and efforts continue.
"We are also pleased to announce as well that a new internal medicine specialist is joining our team in October and we will be having a surgeon doing a site visit with us in September and should it be successful they will be joining our community as well, which is really promising for our surgical department."
Hospital staff
Shendruk thanked community members, the CCRHD and city of Williams Lake for supporting and welcoming locums and new health care staff to the community.
At the end of July she hosted some drop-in events at CMH where she met with CMH health care workers.
"It was really good to hear from our frontline providers. The turnout was really excellent and overwhelming. It was positive and a very appreciative atmosphere," she said.
Describing the workers as 'very' committed, she noted many asked how they can get their voices out into the community to share their experiences.
"They are feeling very supported by their local leadership and are very excited about the new hospital being built. I did hear about the collaboration in care, especially when they are working short-staffed, and how they are supporting each other."
She she's heard how workers feel supported and welcomed in the community who have had the opportunity to come and provide service in Williams Lake.
"I do want to emphasize that they also came with some solutions in regards to the challenges around housing and child care being some of the tough barriers to come and retain work in the community."
During exit interviews, some people have mentioned not being able to access child care.
"We have done a review and come to learn that Williams Lake has approximately 30 child care spaces for every 100 children compared to the average in other area's of approximately 41 spaces per 100 children, ages zero to five," Shendruk said.
Activities for youth are another barrier, she added.
"Some people are leaving the community to support their children to have activities that are available to them."
Housing continues to be challenging across the Interior and B.C.
"It is the same in Williams Lake where there is a below one per cent vacancy rate. It does present a challenge for people coming to live and work in the community."
There are opportunities to encourage people to want to come and live and work in Williams Lake, and retain health care workers who are working very hard to continue to serve, she added.
"We are creating a long-term strategy at IH for recruitment and retention in areas like William Lake and take advantage of opportunities to increase housing access, including townhouse leasing and other initiatives. We are open to partnerships to help health care workers access housing and child care spaces."
Health care dollars cannot be spent on housing construction or child care, but partnerships are an option as well as supporting private sectors to move such projects forward, Shendruk said.
Communication
Shendruk also told the board that Angie Mindus, long-time Williams Lake resident and former editor of the Efteen, has been hired to work with the IH communications team.
"Angie's experience and knowledge of the area will really support our leadership and on the ground teams to build the important relationships that we have with our community partners and really support us to provide messaging to the community that people are feeling a gap in at this time," Shendruk said.
Mindus will be starting her new job after Labour Day.
