by Lyonel Doherty

South Okanagan General Hospital in Oliver will receive $200,000 to strengthen public access to emergency services.

This is part of last summer’s announcement by the province that $200,000 was earmarked for rural, fee-for-service physicians who commit to emergency services at their local hospitals.

This funding will be used to hire additional physicians, provide incentives for working weekends, holidays or night shifts, and equipment purchases.

Some of the funding will be targeted to physician recruitment and retention programs.

Boundary-Similkameen MLA John Slater said the funding is in response to last summer’s concern about Oliver doctors finding it difficult to staff the emergency room (ER) department at SOGH. Local physicians (who work on a fee for service basis) also raised a concern about their remuneration for ER work not being up to par with doctors (on salary) at Penticton Regional Hospital. As a result, some physicians said they were going to withdraw their ER services from SOGH.

Slater acknowledged that patients shouldn’t have to sit in the ER waiting room for a long time when they pay for medical services. But that’s the demographic reality of it all, he stated.

Slater said the hope is to establish a system using technology that will see patients accessing their doctors over the phone or via computer as opposed to visiting the emergency department and adding to wait times.

Slater said the $200,000 will definitely help Oliver physicians at SOGH, but he admitted it’s only a short-term fix.

“We want to make sure that we have physicans 24/7 at the hospital . . . SOGH is a great facility and we want to keep it alive.”

Slater noted that 250 families will be relocating to the Oliver area once the new correctional centre is built. This should keep the hospital busy.