Back-to-back closures of small community emergency rooms on North Vancouver Island over the weekend is another example of the overall erosion of the primary care system in rural communities, the BC Green Party and the BC Nurses’ Union say.
Due to ongoing staffing shortages, the emergency room at Port Hardy Hospital was temporarily closed from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday. That closure took place hard on the heels of another temporary emergency department closure at the neighbouring Port McNeill Hospital from 3 p.m. Saturday to 7 a.m Sunday.
The shortage of primary care physicians in small communities increases the pressure on local ERs and vice versa, he added. “Can you imagine driving your spouse with chest pain for like an hour and a half … with spotty cell service?” she said. Nurses are spent physically and mentally and can’t be asked to do more after two-plus years of a pandemic, Gear said, adding COVID-19 patient numbers at hospitals are on the rise right now.
Island Health is having trouble meeting its minimum threshold of having 70 per cent of staff at the authority’s hospitals and facilities, and shifting nurses around only aggravates the problem and leads to the continued “bleeding” of nurses from the system, Gear said. No one was available from Island Health to speak with Canada's National Observer about the North Island ER closures.
The staff recruitment in North Island and elsewhere is a key priority for Island Health, the authority said, adding it is conducting a local, national and international recruitment campaign to attract employees to the region. “Island Health has been open with us that this issue will not be solved overnight, and we will have to navigate through the shortages over the summer.”
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