Some communities across B.C. lose health-care services as Omicron cuts into staffing
CBC
Health-care services in several communities around B.C. are being cut as medical workers are redeployed to deal with staffing shortages caused by the Omicron variant.
Interior Health has closed inpatient services in Lillooet, Clearwater, and Invermere, reduced overnight hours at the Ashcroft Community Health Centre and the Slocan Community Health Centre in New Denver, and closed the Barriere and District Health Centre to redeploy staff to nearby emergency departments.
Interior Health CEO Susan Brown said the decision was made to sustain essential services around the region and normal operations will be restored as soon as possible.
"Our rationale for doing this is to stabilize the care," Brown said. "Our doors are open. The emergency departments — we're doing everything in our ability to stabilize them to ensure that if you need care in that community, you have a door to walk through or there will be staff to take care of you."
The mayor of one of the affected communities said he was shocked by the news and called the decision to redirect resources elsewhere "irresponsible."
"We've had disruptions in service as have a lot of the other smaller communities and I get it," Barriere Mayor Ward Stamer said.
"With COVID and some of the things that have happened, all of a sudden they don't have a person today and they've got to shut an emergency room down or they've got to shut coverage down. I totally understand. But for them to arbitrarily say, 'We're going to shut it down for a month because we don't have enough nursing staff' is totally unacceptable."
LISTEN | Barriere Mayor Ward Stamer on the closure of the community's health centre
Stamer said a shutdown means residents may have to travel to Kamloops for care, putting pressure on ambulance services and that city's emergency department. He suggests keeping the health centre open but on a reduced schedule may be a better option.
Brown said inpatient services are being reduced in some rural areas.
"The reason for doing that is to ensure that the emergency departments remain open and that people have local and easy access to care, and then if they require inpatient care, we'll get them to a different hospital for that care," she said.
Brown said the situation will be assessed on a daily basis.
"My hope is we're in the thick of this right now with this wave of illness and that soon we will start to see some reduction [in illness]," Brown said.
P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch is looking for 50 substitute bus drivers, and it'll be recruiting at three job fairs on Saturday, June 8. The job fairs are located at the Atlantic Superstore in Montague, Royalty Crossing in Charlottetown, and the bus parking lot of Three Oaks Senior High in Summerside. All three run from 9 a.m. until noon. Dave Gillis, the director of transportation and risk management for the Public Schools Branch, said the number of substitute drivers they're hiring isn't unusual. "We are always looking for more. Our drivers tend to have an older demographic," he said.