We should not tolerate ER closures, says shadow minister for health

Repeated ER closures in the Interior are "not acceptable," according to Shirley Bond, BC United's shadow minister for health.

"The people of British Columbia should not stand for it," said Bond, who is also the MLA for Prince George-Valemount.

"There is a healthcare crisis in British Columbia and people are losing faith in our healthcare system. Yet, the NDP government doesn't even acknowledge there is a crisis."

Over the past week, there have been seven temporary closures of emergency departments at five Interior Hospitals -- South Okanagan General in Oliver, Cariboo Memorial in Williams Lake, Dr. Helmcken Memorial in Clearwater, Nicola Valley in Merritt and Lillooet Hospital.

The closures lasted anywhere from five hours at South Okanagan General to 48 hours at Nicola Valley.

Interior Health, which oversees all the hospitals, attributes the frequent closures on doctor and nurse shortages.

When an emergency department is shut, Interior Health recommends calling 811 if it's a non-emergency, dialling 911 if it's an emergency so an ambulance can rush you to the nearest ER that's open or driving yourself, or have someone else drive you, to the closest available ER.

In the most absurd suggestion from Interior Health, residents of Williams Lake needing an ER were told they could drive six hours and 450 kilometres for emergency care in Bella Coola.

Ninety-three kilometres to 100 Mile House or 120 kilometres to Quesnel were also offered up as options.

When the ER was closed in Oliver, the alternative was the one-hour, 70-kilometre drive to Penticton.

Lillooet to Kamloops is 172 kilometres and a two hour drive, Clearwater to Kamloops is 120 kilometres and an hour and a half and Merritt to Kamloops is an hour over 87 kilometres.

NowMedia Group wanted to speak with either Interior Health CEO Susan Brown or Interior Health medical health officer Dr. Martin Lovoie about the alarming prevalence of ER closures in the Interior and what can be done to stem them.

However, Interior Health didn't arrange an interview or interviews.

Instead, NowMedia received an email statement that could be attributed to Interior Health generally.

"Unfortunately, there are times for various reasons -- short or longer-term leaves, sick calls and general vacancies -- when we cannot safely sustain emergency department services," read the statement.

Interior Health points out that when there are vacant shifts, either nurse or doctor, it does everything it can to cover the shift until all options are exhausted and an ER closure becomes the last resort.

"The challenges in recruiting doctors, nurses and other health care professionals are not isolated to the Interior region, BC or even to Canada. Interior Health is committed to ongoing efforts to secure staffing and working with our communities to make sure the world knows how beautiful it is to work in the Interior region of BC," continued the Interior Health statement.

Interior Health said it has had success in bringing new staff to Williams Lake, Merritt and other communities.

Williams Lake, Lillooet and Merritt are all eligible for Provincial Rural Retention Incentives, which provide incentive pay of up to $2,000 per quarter and $8,000 per year.

Shadow minister for health Bond said an easy way for BC to better staff its healthcare system is to rehire the 1,800 healthcare workers who were fired in 2021 because they didn't take the COVID vaccine.

"Every other jurisdiction is doing everything it can to avoid a healthcare crisis, including bringing back unvaccinated workers," said Bond.

"Yet, here we sit, because of a stubborn refusal by government, with ER closures, a shortage of family doctors, long surgery wait times and declining cancer care outcomes."

BC United has been demanding that unvaxxed workers be rehired since June 2022 because "we need every single healthcare worker possible," according to Bond.

Ironically, Bond pointed out that BC cancer patients who have waited too long in this province are now being sent for treatment in Washington state, where unvaxxed healthcare workers have all been hired back.

BC United has ordered the NDP to set its ideologies aside and put patients at the centre of the healthcare agenda.

"We need care and we need it right away," said Bond.

"Whether it's public or private care, patients should be treated right away and it should be paid for with public dollars."

The NDP is not wavering on its stance that healthcare workers have to be vaccinated.

"Vaccines continue to provide the best protection to those most vulnerable (both patients and residents) and to healthcare workers themselves," read another part of the Interior Health statement.

"The vaccine mandate impacted under 4% of the Interior Health total workforce and is not tied to current healthcare staffing challenges, which are being felt across the province and Canada. Anyone currently unvaccinated who wishes to work in the healthcare system now only needs to receive their updated COVID-19 vaccine that protects them against the latest variant of concern to be considered vaccinated unter the Provincial Health Officer order."

Part two of story will run tomorrow at 7 am, outlining what Merritt Mayor Michael Goetz is trying to do to put a stop ER closures.