B.C. health ministry launching review after baby awaiting airlift to Vancouver dies

The provincial health minister says she has launched a review after an infant died in Interior B.C. because a timely airlift to hospital wasn’t arranged.

The tragedy took place in late January at East Kootenay Regional Hospital.

Health Minister Josie Osborne says the infant transport team from BC Emergency Health Services provided care on scene before transporting the patient to Vancouver, but tragically, the child died.

The timeline is unclear, and Osborne says she can’t confirm whether the child died en route or after they arrived in Vancouver. She says answers to those questions will form part of the review.

“BC Emergency Health Services is going to engage directly with the doctors in the East Kootenay region at the hospital to better understand what happened,” said Osborne.

“We know, again, there’s more work to do to make sure that these kinds of really sensitive and important transports can happen.”

Sparwood, B.C., Mayor David Wilks says the tragedy could have been avoided, and a tiff between the provincial governments in Alberta and B.C. is complicating things further.

He says Alberta’s STAR air ambulance service isn’t allowed to enter B.C. and transport patients back to Alberta anymore.

“We are in trouble because we used to be able to go to Alberta for these types of things, and we cannot go there anymore for whatever reason — you’d have to ask the provincial governments, B.C. and Alberta, why we can’t go there anymore. But we can’t. We’re forced to go west, which means that we have to have clear and unfettered air transport,” said Wilks.

The rules, Wilks says, make it difficult to find a solution when a patient must be airlifted to somewhere like Kelowna or Vancouver.

He says there are major issues in accessing critical care in his corner of the province. While he understands Alberta’s position, Wilks says something’s got to change.

“Their numbers are going up as well with regard to patient care. But to just shut the door is, to me, very difficult to swallow. And when we start having deaths as a result of a breakdown in the system, we have a problem.”

Osborne confirmed she will be meeting with Alberta’s Ministry of Health to iron out some of the details and come to an agreement so they can put patient needs first.

“We are currently sitting down with Alberta Health Services to improve and clarify their acceptance of cases like this, urgent infant transfers, for example, from Eastern B.C. through STAR.”