A donation made by the Kimberley Health Care Auxilliary to the East Kootenay Foundation for Health (EKFH) in 2017 has become vital to the fight against COVID-19 in the East Kootenay.
THe EKFH said that back in December 2017, it received a donation of $83,700 and included the purchase of a GeneXpert Polymerase Chain Reaction Machine (PCR).
It added that this machine will allow testing COVID-19 locally, within the East Kootenay Interior Health region. Testing being done on a local level will allow for results to be given within an hour instead of having to send samples to Kelowna or Vancouver, which could take up to seven days.
In a letter to the EKFH, the East Kootenay Regional Hospital (EKRH) offered its thanks for the donation.
“We cannot overemphasize the impact of this gift, without which we would have continued to wait for testing performed at Kelowna General Hospital
or the BC CDC in Vancouver. By allowing rapid confirmation and rule-out of COVID-19, we are able to better manage patients while conserving important resources such as personal protective equipment (PPE) and negative pressure isolation rooms,” said the EKRH. “This testing guides infection control and public health interventions in our hospitals, long-term care facilities, and even work camps, and has truly saved this region. All of you who support the East Kootenay Foundation for Health are our guardian angels.”
