Cariboo-Chilcotin Regional Hospital District (CCRHD) chair John Massier sent a letter to Williams Lake City council when he heard it was considering a motion calling for the Central Cariboo to remain within the Interior Health Authority (IHA) jurisdiction.
In the letter, Massier said he wanted to clarify the CCRHD has not taken a position the region should be removed from IHA, but rather the advantages of moving it under the Northern Health Authority (NHA) be investigated.
"Our original resolution was intended to initiate a dialogue about what the board perceives as an inequity in the health-care spending in our region by IHA, compared with the spending of [NHA]."
He notes his letter arrived too late for council to review before its Sept. 18 meeting, he notes, where a resolution passed unanimously for Williams Lake and the Central Cariboo to remain with the IHA.
Council also stated it will not support any discussions about moving the health authorities' boundaries at this time.
However, discussions ensued later between the council, CCRHD, Cariboo Regional District, IHA and the Ministry of Health at the Union of B.C. Municipalities conference Sept. 24-28.
Massier says he'd had a chance to let council know the content of his letter and reassure them there was "no plan to arbitrarily proceed down that path" to any boundary changes without the direction of the citizens and communities of 100 Mile House and Williams Lake.
He explained the exercise was really intended to initiate more conversation with the IHA and, hopefully, stimulate more funding for CCRHD projects in the South and Central Cariboo.
"We just feel like we were getting poor service from [IHA] and the board was just sort of fed up with it. I think the [original CCRHD] motion came out of that sense of frustration that we're not being served as far as capital projects go in the south and central [areas]."
Although the council also sent its objections in a letter to the CRD, he doesn't see it as an end to the idea.
Both the Williams Lake council and the CCRHD remain on the same page when it comes to moving along the master plan for Williams Lake's Cariboo Memorial Hospital, Massier added.
"If that's what it took to get the IHA to wake up and pay attention to us, then [so be it]."
The North Cariboo is already under the NHA and, therefore, the CCRHD board sees the inequity in funding provided by the two health authorities.
"... over a 10-year period, [IHA] has spent roughly $10,937,000, or $273.42 per resident of the South and Central Cariboo; while [NHA] in the same [decade] has spend roughly $21,400,000, or $930.50 per resident of the North Cariboo, for shared capital improvement projects with the regional hospital district."
He notes this may not reflect the quality of care, but does reflect the level of commitment to improvements.
These key projects include getting the remaining beds open at Fischer Place/Mill Site Lodge, as well as completing the much larger project at Cariboo Memorial Hospital, for which CCRHD shelled out the entire $200,000 to develop a master plan, which, Massier says is "collecting dust."
Massier explains he's seen enough project funding decisions over the past 10 years to suspect the hospital plan may not happen for another two or three decades.
"There's $900 million in capital projects over $2-million on the IHA strategic plan 2012-15, and Cariboo Memorial is not mentioned anywhere."
He adds what "worries" him is the plan doesn't state how many millions of dollars in projects are planned under $2 million.
"They're only doing $100 million a year maximum in projects now, so unless we can get something changed on that list, it's going to be a long wait."
Massier says he will attend a meeting with IHA on Oct. 19, where he hopes to get more answers on central- and south-end project timelines.