Kelowna residents who need an x-ray this summer can expect to wait much longer than normal or travel for the exam. Like almost every part of the healthcare system, Kelowna Medical Imaging – the only X-ray provider in the city other than KGH – faces major staffing challenges. The managing partner Dr. David Manders says they have experienced an “unprecedented loss of staff” over the past six to nine months, forcing X-ray services to be suspended at two of their three clinics in Central Okanagan. Currently, only the West Kelowna Clinic offers X-rays. When the three clinics were fully staffed with seven X-ray technologists, they completed about 200 x-rays a day. Now, the lone X-ray technologist is gone and some ordinary staff can make about 45 a day. Excellent X-rays are redirected to an already overloaded KGH or to other hospitals and clinics elsewhere in Okanagan. Manders says they lost staff for a variety of reasons, such as the high cost of living in Kelowna, retirement or others going to work in the hospital. He says they are doing everything they can to attract staff and will increase their skills once more technologists are hired. “We have the equipment, we have the buildings, we pay for every other staff and person who is close to support him. “We are doing the best we can to find staff, we have advertised in as many places as we can think of,” he said. “We try to find ways to think outside the box, as well as to find new technologists, whether it tries to support the technologists as they go through their training to come with us later – or whether it is enticing staff in other ways. but we do the best we can. “ To make matters worse, Manders says fewer people are entering the field than ever before, with just 28 of the 80 places in BCIT’s X-ray training program currently being filled. He could only guess why this is happening, but noted that entry requirements have become more difficult in recent years. “I want to emphasize that we do the best we can to try to help patients and we do the best we can to try to bring in more staff to make it easier. “We did our best to help disperse the patients during this very difficult period.” While X-ray services have been suspended at Kelowna Medical Imaging’s Richter and Orchard Park clinics, other tests such as mammograms and bone marrow scans are still available at these sites. Staff shortages have also recently affected cancer treatment in Kelowna and nursing homes.
