After reading a magazine delivered with The Daily News called A History Through Objects, it stated that in 1912 there were 128 beds in the newly built Royal Inland Hospital.

I was curious to know what the present bed count was. Thought I would make a quick call to administration to find out. After reaching switchboard, I asked the receptionist if she knew, but she didn’t know and transferred me to another part of administration.

She didn’t know and transferred me to another part of administration who also didn’t know. They transferred me to admitting, which didn’t know. I was told utilization would know.

This person grilled me about why I wanted to know, who I was, who I was representing, and so on. I almost got the impression it was a secret. She did not know or was reluctant to tell me. I was transferred to the hospital foundation.

A very pleasant lady answered and gave me the answer I was looking for. She said there are presently, not counting emergency beds, 220 beds at RIH. I thanked her and hung up. A few moments later I got a call from administration who said she found out the bed count and there are 226 beds. So I will use the latter figure.

This means that in 100 years there have been 98 beds added, less than one bed a year over 100 years. Wings have been added for administration and other departments, but RIH has been at a standstill for adding wings to increase the bed count.

With our growing population, and servicing and accommodating outlying communities, it’s a pretty sad state of affairs with only 98 beds in 100 years. Now I am curious to know how many staff did they have in administration in 1912, and how many do we have in 2012?

BEV MYRAM

Kamloops