The Village of Burns Lake on Nov. 28, addressed the Lakes District Hospital and Health Care emergency department’s closure for an indefinite period.
At the council meeting, Robert Krause, director of the protective services of the Village of Burns Lake, indicated that the Lakes District Hospital and Health Care closed at 4 p.m. on Nov. 28 until Nov. 29, 8 a.m.
There had been four closures within November, and the last time the hospital had a closed, Krause and his team were attending three medical calls and had to wait for over an hour to get an ambulance from Houston.
The service interruptions at the Lakes District Hospital and Health Care’s emergency department have been an ongoing problem since October.
Only six physicians are working at the hospital, and it hasn’t been enough for the full coverage.
Eryn Collins from Northern Health Communications said they still do not have a solution for the staffing challenges at the hospital.
Collins said residents could seek Northern Health Virtual Primary and Community Care Clinic service from their homes over the phone or through a video call.
She said there is still Virtual Emergency Department physician coverage for the Lakes District hospital.
She added residents should still call 911 for life-threatening emergencies so they can be transported to the nearest available and appropriate facility.
“We continue to work to arrange virtual coverage whenever available,” Collins said.
But, Krause is calling out Northern Health’s inconsistency. He stated that he received a medical call on Nov. 28 from a cardiac arrest patient who was having chest pains in the parking lot of the hospital, just 10 feet from help, but the door was locked.
Despite Northern Health’s Facebook page updates regarding what happens at Burns Lake’s hospital, their website is inconsistent, and Krause has concerns about its reliability.
He informs council that neither him nor B.C. Ambulance got an email notification for the incident on Nov. 28.
Hearing all these, Councillor Darrell Hill said he would like to make a motion to write a letter to Northern Health advising them to announce their emergency department closure for public knowledge, so that people with cardiac arrest might know that the hospital might not be efficient enough to help them.
The council agreed that it was the best thing to do.
Nechako Lakes MLA John Rustad who is also the leader of the B.C. Conservative Party said the current staff shortage in medical health care is unacceptable.
Rustad said jobs need to be offered back to the nurses, doctors and other health care professionals who have lost their employment by lifting off vaccine mandates.
In this way, Rustad pointed that many physician shortages could be resolved, and for a small community like Burns Lake, even one or two nurses can make a huge difference.
Rustad added that a shortage of medical staff can be felt not only in Burns Lake but throughout the province.
“We’re building a new hospital in Fort St. James, and they don’t have enough staffing.”
According to Rustad, an estimated 7000 nurses have either been fired or left the system by retiring early during the pandemic.
He feels nurses are currently overworking due to the shortage and said he has seen a nurse in Victoria who worked for 30 days without any vacations.
“We’re overworking our staff. I keep hearing from nurses and doctors who have decided they want to leave British Columbia because they just can’t handle the pressure anymore.”
“This should not be happening in our healthcare system. We need to be able to change how we look at staffing and actually change the health care administration in this province,” Rustad said.