Kaslo Health Centre inherits $500,000 but no projects on horizon
By Erin Perkins
A $500,000 donation by Kaslo resident Mabel Manning for the Victorian Community Health Centre will continue to sit idle until at least the 2013 budget season.
The bequeathment was made a few years ago and continues to be held by lawyers until a project has been identified for the small care centre, said Greg Lay, West Kootenay Boundary Regional Health District (WKBRHD) board director for Kaslo.
Last December during the development of the 2012 budget, the WKBRHD asked Interior Health (IH) to add $300,000 to the $200,000 the board agreed to release from their savings fund to create a combined one million dollars with the bequeathment to be used to upgrade and improve the old Victorian Community Health Centre facilities.
The small health centre serves the Kaslo community of 1,000 people with emergency health services, rehabilitation, community clinic, home support and radiology.
Interior Health couldn’t come up with the money in this year’s budget, so the $500,000 continues to sit in limbo.
According to an IH spokesperson, IH is “grateful for this generous donation”.
The authority is now considering how best to use this funding. There won’t be any more details available until they’ve followed up with the estate to see if Manning indicated a specific purpose for the funds.
Lay said the WKBRHD does not get to decide on projects and that a project will be identified by IH based on community and facility consultations.
He would like to see a proactive health care project put in place like diagnostic equipment or palliative care facility so residents don’t have to leave home when they need care or the addition of nurse practioners to the staff in the centre.
“Thanks to Mabel we can enter into 21st century diagnostic,” said Lay.
He hopes the IH does due diligence when deciding how to use the money.
“I’m concerned IH would use the money for what they perceive is important and not ask from janitors to doctors to find out what they think is needed. . ..
“What we need to do is assess the hospital’s current condition and then where it will be in five, 10 and 20 years so we can make smart investments.”
How donations to IH and local health facilities can often be controversial.
Lay said there is a perception that when a community gets together to raise money for a new machine or project that they are “jumping the cue” over other projects to get the rest of the funds from Interior Health.
An example of this is when Nelson residents raised money to buy an Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine but IH didn’t have the money to operate the device.
He doesn’t want the bequeathment to also be perceived that way.
Emergency telephone system being upgraded
While no long term projects are yet on the horizon for the Victorian Community Health Centre, there is a telephone upgrade currently underway in the emergency health services entrance.
Right now if a patient comes to the emergency room during the night they must use an intercom phone to be buzzed into the facility. If a nurse is not at the desk when the patient is calling in, the nurse might not be aware of the patient being out there, said Lay.
Soon there will be a telephone that the nurse can carry around so they will be aware the moment someone is as the door.
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