NELSON, B.C. –
The current number of vacant positions in Interior Health Association is about three times higher than it was before the pandemic and the current staff are “burning out,” according to an IHA official.
An inquiry to IHA media relations confirmed that the staffing shortages plaguing healthcare facilities across the country are also crippling West Kootenay locations, causing reductions in the emergency room hours and redeployment of staff from other departments and centres.
In fact, the national insufficiency has had a ripple effect on the local inability to attract and fill key gaps in the employment roster, the IHA media relations office in Kelowna noted.
“Interior Health is facing human resource challenges in many of our communities,” the department asserted. “These challenges are occurring in every sector of the economy, with the health sector across Canada being hit particularly hard.”
Although what is causing the staffing shortage isn’t isolated, the demands of the pandemic have been widely cited by those who have left the healthcare field.
