Thursday September 02, 2010

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  • City & Region

    Surgeons demoralized as another case of dirty instruments found at RIH

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    Another case of contaminated surgical equipment occurred Wednesday at Royal Inland Hospital, two weeks after a similar discovery shut down elective surgeries and prompted internal and external audits.

    RIH chief of surgery Dr. Simon Treissman said the latest incident is disheartening as the hospital is in a prescheduled two-week slowdown and surgical cases pile up.

    “Community members should be concerned,” he said. “It’s a big crisis. It’s not going to come and go quickly.”

    Surgeons have been reduced to one-quarter of their cases in the short term, he said.

    “It’s pretty demoralizing.”

    On Wednesday morning, a woman whose shoulder replacement operation was cancelled two weeks ago because of the dirty-instrument discoveries was being prepared for surgery. Before she was anesthetized, the surgical instruments were opened and cement used for prosthetics was found in the instrument pan.

    Surgeon Dr. Derek Plausinis said it was his only case for the day because his OR time was cut back to half a day. The patient has been waiting for her surgery since September 2008.

    Interior Health’s chief executive officer Dr. Robert Halpenny said other surgeries were not cancelled as a result of this latest find.

    The cement was sterilized, had been through the washing process at least three times and did not put patients at risk, he said.

    “It may have been a case where, in a previous case, the cement was being mixed over the tray of instruments and some dropped onto the tray” and stuck to the instrument, he said.

    Halpenny said it’s due to heightened awareness that this incident was caught.

    An internal audit into RIH’s sterilization unit is complete and the external audit is soon to be contracted out. The unit is at maximum capacity and is now at the top of Interior Health’s priority list, he said.

    “The fact that we put this as No. 1 on our capital list, number two is the commitment to the new ICU, there are a lot of positive things going on there (Kamloops).”

    Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Terry Lake said he and fellow Liberal MLA Kevin Krueger met with doctors and management from Royal Inland and went over their priorities.

    “The sterilization equipment wasn’t on the top of the list, but I understand it has risen to the top now. We’ll make sure they get the equipment they need.”

    Lake said ensuring RIH gets its fair share of health dollars and remains a first-class tertiary facility is a priority.

    He believes RIH needs a long-term plan, “a five-, 10- and 15-year vision for Royal Inland Hospital and how it serves our region and what that means in terms of capital.”

    NDP health critic Adrian Dix said Interior Health did an internal audit in 2008 and won’t release those recommendations now.

    IHA needs to release those recommendations and listen to staff at the hospital, he said.

    “Raise the standard of cleanliness and sterilization in all our public hospitals. Those standards have been downgraded in the last eight years,” he said.

    “They need to get on it now. These are serious issues. They’ve failed the people of Kamloops again and again.”


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    Quibbler says...

    HST going toward health care? I cannot believe the number of people who believe that as fact! How soon we forget...

    The HST is Revenue Neutral..according to Gordon Campbell's own words. This is not "new funding" people..this is a "tax shift." Corporations no longer have to pay their fair share of taxes, because we're going to do it for them...to the tune of about 1.6 to 2.0 billion dollars every year!

    This is NOT "new" money, there is NOTHING extra to give toward health care! That's one lie somewhat straightened out...the second part...the HST will be about 113 million dollars short of what the PST would have brought in before Campbell decided to make the deal. HST is going to cost US thousands of dollars more than the PST/GST we already pay...and it will still be short of where we are right now! We really need to start paying attention to their shell game people.

    Oh yeah, the 750 million we're supposed to receive this spring as part of settlement (bribe?) from the Federal government has been set aside in favor of taking 250 million...so Campbell can take the larger payments closer to the next election. No biggie right? Wrong. That political gambit is going to cost us in the neighbourhood of 75 million in interest payments we should not be paying, IF he really was the financial wizard he'd like us to think he is. But hey, the optics are what people will fall for, not the truth.

    It's no bloody wonder people are turning off, and tuning out of politics in BC...come to think of it...where are the local investigative journalists that should be giving us RELIABLE information?

    Posted on March 8, 2010 @ 9:42 am PST | Report post to Editor | 3420677 

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    Moonriver says...

    Well said Bonny. Thanks for speaking out.
    Now they say the money from the dreaded HST will go to health care, problem solved...yeah right.

    Posted on March 5, 2010 @ 5:26 pm PST | Report post to Editor | 3401117 

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    Leo says...

    There is no excuse for instruements or anything entering an operating room that has not been properly sterlized. Things have gone from bad to worse since the minister of health has changed. It most likely is his attitude toward health care in general. His response to the reduction of staff in the Kooteny region show his arrogant and uncaring attitude. His government ran on a slate of reducing waiting time, in that are they have increased. His response was not that they were looking into the matter to see if they could reduce the increase. It was that regions wait times although they have increased they are still less than the provincial average. He made it very clear to me that the wait time is of no concern to his government, and the result of reducing wait time and running an efficient operation is to encourge layoffs so that they can raise their wait times to the provincial average no matter how dismall it is. That is way this government is failing the people of this province. No one should try to do worse except politicians for that is all they know.

    Leo

    Posted on March 5, 2010 @ 1:22 pm PST | Report post to Editor | 3399290 

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    saywhat says...

    The IHA is running around small towns bullying local food-based fundraisers while modern hospitals can't even keep surgical instruments clean? A church in Ashcroft has run a bean supper for 60 years with nary a problem.All of a sudden they must now jump through a bunch of hoops or they can't hold the event.The IHA's record should be so good.

    Posted on March 5, 2010 @ 10:51 am PST | Report post to Editor | 3397098 

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    aged says...

    Surgical intruments make real cool roachclips don't they?

    Posted on March 4, 2010 @ 8:39 pm PST | Report post to Editor | 3396984 

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    noidear says...

    I agree with CommonSense. Sounds like a case of lazy or irresponsible unionized workers to me (a health crisis indeed). There's no excuse...if the tools aren't clean, if there isn't time to clean them, or for whatever reason, they shouldn't be left/put somewhere that they might be used. I also think heads should roll from the top on down. Can't or shouldn't they have supervisors overseeing the employees?

    As an aside, I was sitting in the hospital lab the other day(for about 45 min.)and again in xray registration and the waiting area. It's amazing how many times you hear the word 'break' when you're in a position to overhear conversations of your unionized hospital employees.

    Posted on March 4, 2010 @ 2:18 pm PST | Report post to Editor | 3393228 

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    lrem22 says...

    How bad do things need to get in this province before someone in government and management admit that there is a healthcare crisis. When will they stop blaming and actually do something.

    Posted on March 4, 2010 @ 10:02 am PST | Report post to Editor | 3393175 

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    Bonny says...

    I am a retired CSD Technician and I can tell you this has been an accident waiting to happen for years. We are told to take our time to make sure the instruments are clean and in good working condition..then they tell you they have to have the instruments back in 1 hour. It takes a lot longer than that to wash, check, set up, sterilize, cool and return the set to the OR.

    The Department needs more instruments, more sterizers, and more Managers who really care about the staff and not so much time "playing the game" of whos who in trying to advance themselves.

    IHA is such a joke as is the Provincial Government and its too bad the staff have to suffer this criticism over something they have no power to change.

    Posted on March 4, 2010 @ 9:15 am PST | Report post to Editor | 3393167 

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    CommonSense says...

    Maybe they should fire the staff who are suppost to be cleaning this stuff and hire a dish washer or something. Seriously, how hard is it to get this stuff clean. If it comes out dirty after the first cleaning clean it again. Really how hard is this?

    Posted on March 4, 2010 @ 8:09 am PST | Report post to Editor | 3393148 

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    BenDover says...

    Let's see how the hospital spins this one.

    Posted on March 4, 2010 @ 7:51 am PST | Report post to Editor | 3393139 

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