Staff shortage leads to long wait times for ultrasounds at Kamloops hospital

The Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops has such a severe backlog of patients waiting for ultrasounds that some patients are being asked to go to other cities for the procedure.

The backlog is a result of the hospital being short between two and three full-time sonographers. One of the ultrasound clinics in the community is also short-staffed, said Kim Perris, health services director for medical imaging with Interior Heath West.

There are currently about 2,500 patients who are booked for ultrasounds and another 1,800 patients who are waiting for an appointment, she said. 

The wait time for elective or non-urgent ultrasound requests is up to a year, Perris told Daybreak Kamloops host Shelley Joyce.

"It is significant enough that we're looking outside of Kamloops to see if someone else can assist with this and decrease the backlog," she added.

Perris said the hospital is trying to recruit more sonographers. In the meantime, patients with non-urgent medical issues who are able to travel are being asked to consider getting the procedure in another city.

"We'd save those appointments for those patients who really do have an urgent need or who can't travel outside of the community," Perris said. 

Patients who do choose to travel to another city will have to cover the cost of their own transportation.

Hospitals in Vernon, Revelstoke and Penticton have agreed to take on patients from Kamloops.

However, Perris noted Vernon's hospital is starting to fill up and may not be able to accept additional patients for much longer. 

More graduates needed

The shortage of sonographers is because there aren't enough graduates to keep up with the vacancies in hospitals, Perris said.

However, BCIT has expanded their sonography program in the past year from 32 students to 40, and The College of New Caledonia in Prince George started a program that admitted eight students in January.

But these students need to be in a clinical setting to practice scanning on patients, and training takes a long time, Perris said.

"We really rely on these clinical training sites and I think everyone has been kind of taxed," she said.

Frustrated patient

Kamloops resident Bruce Thomson had a difficult time getting an elective ultrasound after his doctor ordered one for him last September.

He struggled for seven months to secure an appointment at the hospital in town and at other locations, he said.

"I started thinking this is crazy," Thomson said. 

Thomson's doctor updated his status to urgent in March, so he was recently able to get an ultrasound in Vernon. That appointment came only after he was told he would have to wait another six months in Kamloops, he said.

"I'm feeling like this is a system in collapse," he said. 

"[In] my experience, it was exceedingly difficult to actually get through to human beings in the system."