Clinical Operations Leaders Provide Community Update

Kathy Doull, Clinical Operations Executive Director at Interior Health (IH), and Yvonne Taylor, Clinical Operations Director, provided an update on the re-establishment of health services on July 20, 2023, as part of the Village of Lytton's community update meeting. Information on what was heard from this spring's engagement sessions as well as an update on the Phase 2 temporary health facility for Lytton was shared. The following questions were addressed during the meeting:

Question: Will IHA new build include assisted living?

Kathy Doull: I can't confirm if it will include assisted living. Part of the challenge is health service guidelines for new builds have changed since St. Bart's was built. Current guidelines require larger than six beds as it was before. So we need to determine what is actually feasible. We also heard the need for other forms of supportive housing and palliative care so individuals can remain in the community living . We have shared the communities desire to have these services and will look at how they can be incorporated in our future plan.

Question: You said, "hopefully lab services" in the temporary building. Is this service not confirmed?

Kathy Doull: I want to confirm our intention to provide lab services in the new building. We say hopefully because we need Telus connectivity and other infrastructure in place so we can move forward with lab services. The other important piece is accreditation and that is required before we can offer that service.

Question: We are aware that the primary doctor virtual service is minimal. Mental Health and substance use supports are mainly virtual. At what level are these being accessed?

Kathy Doull: I can't answer that right now as I don’t have the specific number but can get that for you. I do know individuals are accessing services both virtually and in person, some of them travelling to Lillooett. For virtual services, the challenge is often connectivity of the internet. We do see in other places that people do make use of mental health services via virtual and our goal would be to use our modular building to improve access to citizens to virtual health services in a space where we can also support them.

Question: We are losing long term community members due to lack of health care services (lab and x-ray, etc…). These residents who did not lose their homes waited 2 years in hopes of more reliable health services. Now they are leaving. Is it possible for IH to make some FIRM commitments as to what services will definitely be returning and when… before we lose more residents please.

Kathy Doull: Our initial goal was to add the services we can provide in this current state and then move to enhance these services in interim state as the community infrastructure develops. We want to move in lock step with the community rebuild but really do need infrastructure in place to expand services. We need to think about housing, etc.. Our goal is to expand services. Right now we're focusing on community engagement to find out what services are most desired by community and using these to develop our long term plan for the rebuild by the end of the year. From there we need to get approvals to move forward, so I can’t speak to timelines that depend on other organizations like Ministry.