May 2025
Dr. Ilona Hale has been connected with the Rural Health Services Research Network of BC for several years now, and we are delighted to spotlight her recent new position and the ongoing work that she is involved in!
Current Position and Exciting Projects
Dr. Hale is a rural family physician in her home community of Kimberley, but is now also working as the new Medical Director for Climate Change and Sustainability at Interior Health (IH). Before Dr. Hale came into this new position, there wasn’t a designated clinical person coordinating with the environmental team – a gap that she recognized was important to fill. This role works with the environmental sustainability team within IH, and in combination with her clinical expertise, she now serves as a crucial link and communicator between the environmental and medical teams throughout the health authority.
“…I have an opportunity to talk to [people on the frontlines] and bring [their] ideas from the frontline… and then at the same time, I can bring regional initiatives that the environmental team identifies based on the data… to share with frontline providers.”
Some of the current projects she is working towards have to do with finding the clinical practices that can be adopted at a large-scale to have a big impact in reducing the overall carbon footprint of the healthcare system. This includes working within teams to reduce carbon-intensive clinical practices such as inefficient use of nitrous oxide tanks in hospitals, reducing the number of unnecessary tests and prescriptions, and helping other clinicians navigate the process for getting their local environmental sustainability projects approved.
Apart from these clinical projects, Dr. Hale also spends much of her time connecting with similar teams across the province, through a provincial sustainable clinical services working group that is funded through the Ministry of Health. Beyond BC borders, Dr. Hale also connects and coordinates with pan-Canadian groups such as CASCADES and Choosing Wisely Canada.
Although there are so many different projects happening now, the goal of Dr. Hale’s work as the Medical Director is the common thread, of seeing where we can reduce the environmental impact of the healthcare system, through both small and big actions.
The Values that Underpin the Work
When asked about which values drive the work that she does, the very first one that Dr. Hale mentioned was the value of caring.
“As physicians, we all care for our patients… and caring for the planet is just an extension of that because we can’t care for our patients unless we provide them with a safe and healthy, and relatively clean and functioning, environment.”
As Dr. Hale spoke about the importance of recognizing the dual role of both caring for patients through caring for the planet, she also mentioned the importance of responsible stewardship. Stewardship is defined as the responsibility of taking good care of something, whether that be a resource or an organization. When we think about environmental stewardship, it can be easy to understand how it may involve taking care of the natural resources in our environment, and minimizing the amount of waste that is generated through our actions. However, Dr. Hale once again made the crucial link between environmental stewardship, and good stewardship over the finite resources that comprise our healthcare system. There is no doubt that an unequitable distribution of resources exacerbate the challenges faced by already marginalized and vulnerable communities, and particularly those that are more rural. Thus, the combined values of caring alongside an emphasis on responsible stewardship help ensure that we “apply justice to the care that we provide.”
Looking Forward to the Next Steps
When asked about what she hopes to see in the future, Dr. Hale shared that the path forward is already quite clear… and that rural communities are some of the best places to get started!
As mentioned throughout, there are many alignments between good healthcare and good environmental sustainability – so Dr. Hale sees how when we keep investing more time and resources towards keeping people healthy and providing holistic care that is closer to home, this will inevitably cycle into ensuring that the care remains environmentally sustainable and good for the planet as a whole.
Other things that she is looking forward to include more positions opening, or evolving, across the province and among a few of the health authorities which don’t have similar roles yet.
“We just have to do it, and I think we need to resist the forces that are pushing us in other directions towards more privatization. We need to stand up and say ‘now, we know how to do this,’ and we need to do this with everyone, with an equity- and justice-lens.”
