Doctor quits to run in election
Dr. Peter Entwistle plans to draw attention to underfunding in the health-care system
The chief of staff at South Okanagan General Hospital in Oliver resigned his position Monday, and says he will run as an independent in the upcoming provincial election to draw attention to underfunding in the health-care system. Dr. Peter Entwistle served in the position since 2009, but said the situation at SOGH has become untenable.
“I’ve had longstanding concerns about the staffing of the ER department in Oliver and how little support we get from Interior Health in terms of managing that, but that I just persevered with,” Entwistle said in an interview Tuesday.
“But the reduction in hospital beds is kind of too much.” Entwistle said Interior Health provides staffing for 18 beds, but there are actually 24 beds in the hospital, “so many times there have been 24 patients there.”
He said Interior Health planned in November to physically remove the six extra beds from double rooms, which would have left behind 18 single-patient rooms, but didn’t follow through because staff protested.
Entwistle fears Interior Health will eventually move ahead with the plan, which will force doctors to leave surplus patients in the emergency department.
Interior Health manager Carl Meadows confirmed the authority has struck a staff working group “that is looking at future configuration at that hospital,” but “we have not made a decision on those (six extra) beds.”
Meadows, the South Okanagan health services administrator, stressed there has been no change to the number of taxpayer-funded beds at SOGH for at least five years, and none is planned.
“We have 18 taxpayer-funded beds that will continue to be run with good financial management, and we have an emergency department that we will continue to have staffing 24-7,” he said.
Interior Health plans to hire a new chief of staff, who will be responsible for things like approving doctor privileges at the hospital and other administrative duties, but in the meantime will rely on Penticton Regional Hospital’s top doctor to look after Oliver.
Entwistle made his resignation public on Monday at a meeting of Oliver town council, during which elected officials voted to write a letter of protest.
Some councillors also suggested that removing beds from SOGH is a prelude to closing the facility and sending patients to Penticton, but Meadows flatly denied it.
“That’s inaccurate. Full stop,” he said, noting SOGH and PRH enjoy a reciprocal relationship that often sees patients transferred between the two facilities.
“There’s absolutely no intention to change the 18 taxpayer-funded beds or to change the 24-7 emergency service that South Okanagan has right now,” said Meadows.
“I want to reassure the public that we give great care at that hospital, the physicians give great care, and that is not going to change.”
Entwistle, who will continue with his family practice in Oliver, said he now intends to throw his hat in the ring for the May 9 provincial election, the approach of which was a factor in the timing of his resignation.
“I probably would have carried on going to meetings and discussing (removal of beds) longer just in the hope something would have resolved, but the fact the election is here, people have to understand what they’re voting for,” he said.
The doctor said he plans to keep the issue of health-care funding on the public’s radar by becoming a candidate in the Boundary-Similkameen riding.
“At least people can vote for a different type of health care than is being offered by the two main parties,” said Entwistle.