In order to keep the nurses and the operating room staff employed, surgeons and anesthetists at the Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital have offered to pay them on their own. This is a step taken in order to keep the services of the hospital intact as well to maintain the quality of care being offered by the hospital.

The doctors, in a letter sent to B. C.’s Minister of Health and the CEO of Interior Health (IH) on Mar. 8, stated that they are prepared to sponsor the salaries to the nurses who are jobless or are displaced.

Andre DeGreef, Head of Surgery at the KBRH said, “We are unsure of the legal ramifications of paying nurses for what should be covered by the government. It is a desperate measure to tell the government that they are ignoring the realities of our hospital’s needs.

The final annoyance, according to DeGreef, is taking their case to the Regional Medical Advisory Committee, and turning the judgment into a medical ruling.

Ian Grant, Head Anesthesiologist at the KBRH said, “We don’t want to see our OR staff go, they are already under funded positions and when their gone their gone. We just want to maintain the services in our region, it is at the point where we are losing the essentials we need”.

At KHRH, about 1,364, 641 were waiting for orthopedic surgery. It has highest number of patients waiting for urology surgery.