The emergency department at Lakes District Hospital and Health Centre closed several times in June.
Ongoing disruptions to emergency room scheduling are due to a shortage of doctors, Northern Health has said. Two new doctors arrived in Burns Lake and began practising in late March, which lead to a temporary decrease in closures. An approximately 650-signature petition from concerned locals calling for action on the emergency room closures was recently presented to Village of Burns Lake council, who plan to present the petition to B.C.'s health minister at an upcoming meeting.
Now, the emergency department is seeing closures again, with at least eight closures in June. Each closure lasted approximately 12 hours.
The emergency department requires one physician and one nurse to be on shift in order to remain open.
In response to questions about the status of physician staffing, Northern Health previously issued a written statement.
“Two new physicians began practicing in Burns Lake in late March. This has helped stabilize physician coverage for the Lakes District Hospital emergency department. However, the community is still experiencing an approximately 50 per cent vacancy rate for physician emergency department coverage,” Northern Health said in the statement.
Northern Health has said that recruitment efforts for physicians and nurse practitioners are ongoing and that a wide range of incentives are in place to attract staff to rural communities.
Concern among locals is acute. Joan Mcfee, one of the organizers of the petition, previously said the situation has caused anxiety in the community.
“If I was to have an aneurysm or a heart condition that required emergency services, I might not make it. And that’s not a very good feeling," she said.
Concerns have reverberated as far as Houston. The Houston Health Centre has no night time or overnight coverage, meaning Houston and area residents are faced with a trip to either Burns Lake or Smithers for emergency department assistance. The emergency department closures were discussed at a Houston council meeting on June 17, resolving to contact the Village of Burns Lake to offer Houston's support in the bid to stop the closures.
Houston Councillor Rebecca Hougen said after the June 17 meeting that it was a "scary prospect not to be able to rely on the standard of care that we have come to expect from the hospital system."
"We have some of the highest costs for health care in the world but we're not providing first class care. It's frustrating and scary."
Hougen said she also raised the topic with the provincial health minister at last year's annual Union of B.C. Municipalities convention.
—With files from Rod Link
