Interior Health resuming paused services

Interior Health (IH) says it will phase-in services that were put on hold last month due to COVID-19. The agency made service adjustments in January “to preserve safe and reliable access to patient care across the Interior region.”

IH president and CEO Susan Brown says the Omicron-driven staffing impacts on the health system are beginning to subside and IH can now resume services that were paused.

“We are working with impacted communities this week and assigning staff back to their regular roles throughout the region following a phased approach that brings services back in a safe and planned way,” said Brown.

The following services will begin returning to normal as follows:

• Scheduling non-urgent elective surgical procedures will resume on Feb. 23, and phase back to full services across Interior Health over a two week period;

• Varying by community, select outpatient services, adult day programs and non-urgent home health services will resume. Impacted clients will be contacted directly;

• Two new registered nurses have been recruited to Lillooet and inpatient services will reopen on Mar. 14;

• One new registered nurse has been recruited to Clearwater and inpatient services to reopen on Feb. 23;

• Nurse provided primary care services at the Barriere and District Health Centre will return to normal on Feb. 23;

• Outpatient lab services in Barriere will return to five days per week, Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The following services remain temporarily reduced:

• Overnight services at the Ashcroft Community Health Centre and the Slocan Community Health Centre in New Denver remain reduced to stabilize daytime services in those communities.

“While staffing is not stable enough to safely restore all services next week, we are pleased to take initial steps and resume non-urgent elective surgeries for people throughout Interior Health. We will be rescheduling postponed procedures to catch up with the backlog as quickly as possible,” added Brown.

Interior Health is reaching out to local leaders and partners to answer questions and work together as services resume. Regular communications and updates are located here: www.interiorhealth.ca/temporary-service-changes.