2 Vancouver Island area ERs to close overnight for foreseeable future
CBC
Two emergency rooms in B.C. will be closed overnight for the foreseeable future until the province can recruit enough staff to return to 24-hour operations.
On Friday, Health Minister Adrian Dix said Port Hardy Hospital's emergency room will be open from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. The emergency room at the Cormorant Island Health Centre in Alert Bay will be available from 8 a.m. until 7 p.m.
"We're gonna get back to full time," Dix said. "It's not going to be weeks. It's going to be longer than that."
The hospital in nearby Port McNeil will remain open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Dix said by announcing the operational change, patients and families will know where and when emergency services are available.
"People need to know when services are available and when they are not," Island Health president and CEO Kathy MacNeil said.
This comes after a Port Hardy physician raised the alarm, saying two of his colleagues plan to resign later this year, leaving him the only emergency physician for the community.
According to Statistics Canada data from 2021, Port Hardy has a population of about 3,400. The number of people living there actually fell from 2016, when there were more than 3,600.
Dr. Alex Nataros has been calling on the province to approve the use of physician assistants.
"We're trying to do the best we can with limited hands," Nataros said. "We need more hands. We need more medical, physician capacity."
He said he's found a physician assistant who could start working with him in June, but needs the Ministry of Health to approve it.
On Friday morning, the B.C. Liberals echoed Nataros's plea.
"B.C.'s health-care system is in a deteriorating state of crisis, and David Eby should be considering any solutions that would help alleviate pressure on the collapsing system and support our overworked health care workers," B.C. Liberal Leader Kevin Falcon said in a statement.
"With our health-care system collapsing, it's time to let physician assistants work in B.C."