Frustration grows over loss of Mammo Unit at KLH
By Suzy Hamilton
Nelson resident Mary Walters was 45-years-old when she was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer.
Back in 1994, she went to Kootenay Lake Hospital for her mammogram, biopsy and surgery to remove the cancer.
With the help of radiation in Vancouver, she survived.
But that’s not the way it is today. As of May 1, women from the West Kootenay region will have to go to Trail for a diagnostic mammogram, return to Trail if a biopsy is necessary and yet again for surgery if needed. Nothing remains but the screening mammography mobile unit that comes to Nelson four times a year.
That unit is not used for diagnostics, only screening for a problem.
Now Walters, an active Kootenay Rhythm Dragon boater is sounding the alarm.
“Women will say, ‘I just won’t go.’ I know a woman who had to pay $200 for a taxi ride to Trail for an exam and another $200 for a ride back. Women are scared, they’ll use any excuse to not have the exam.”
Walters is concerned that a difficult bus schedule from Nelson—although now connecting to Trail — will further prevent women from traveling to Trail.
As an example, “If you live in Kaslo, you can only go on the bus one day a week, there are three transfers, and to get back home you have to have your appointment between 1:56 and 3:16 pm,” she said.
Walters is upset that there was no consultation with the public.
“This decision wasn’t at all consultative.” she said. “The bottom line is always money. They are downloading costs to patients.”
She isn’t alone in her fears.
Nelson resident Rocco Mastrobuono was key in raising funds for the KLH mammography unit and biopsy machine in 2000, as well as a telemetric system for KLH’s now defunct ICU ward and a gamma probe.
“I’m very concerned we’re losing services,” he said. “This is the tip of the iceberg. They are dismantling the (KLH) hospital piece by piece.”
Mastrobuono is frustrated that Interior Health has not moved on the central regional hospital concept, proposed for Castlegar or Playmor Junction. “It’s not happening, they keep dumping money into Trail.”
He has been told that even if enough money was raised in Nelson for an updated digital mammography unit that IH would use the funds for other needs.
And he is frustrated that local, regional and provincial politicians are not preserving health care in Nelson and lobbying for at least the return of a two site model in
Trail and Nelson that existed before 2001.
“There is a decreasing (mammogram) volume in Nelson,” said Thalia Vesterbeck, IH Director of Diagnostic Imaging. Last year Nelson’s analog system handled 600 diagnostic mammogram visits, down 100 from 2013, while Trail’s went up from 1,500 to 1,600, she said.
In 2013 the Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital in Trail installed a digital mammography unit with the help of their hospital foundation, raising $800,000 for the unit.
Although the machine has a far greater capacity than the KLH analogue (film) machine, wait times will still be two weeks for a mammogram, said Vesterbeck.
That is because Nelson and area women will be added to the workload.
Despite getting negative feedback over the “difficult” decision to close the Nelson service, Vesterback says, “it’s a done deal.”
“I apologize (to the Nelson women) for this impact, but the intent was not to make it more inaccessible.”
Vesterbeck said that IH has to “balance the needs” of all the residents, not through the lens of diagnostic services.
“We’re being expected to be more efficient with the resources we have.”
While Vesterbeck sympathizes with the transportation problem, she said, “it’s not my area. IH is not directly responsible, although it does give financial support to BC Transit.”
But Walters doesn’t buy this argument. She said the new system will be highly inefficient for those who have to travel to Trail, often taking off work for a day to do so, possibly needing another person to drive, all at their own cost.
“It will effect people economically,” said Walters.
Speaking for the Kootenay Rhythm Dragon boaters, she said, “I’m not sure where we’ll go from here. We keep bumping into dead ends. I get really discouraged that people aren’t up in arms over this.”
Walters will be meeting with IH on the issue March 30.
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