ER closures in B.C. a growing public health risk, advocates say

As more and more emergency rooms across rural British Columbia see their hours scaled back due to staffing issues, health advocates say the situation is becoming a significant public safety risk.

The ER in Clearwater, north of Kamloops, is closing at 6 p.m. each day until Monday. Anyone who needs emergency care at night will need to travel to Kamloops or 100 Mile House — both about a 90-minute drive away.

In New Denver, east of Kelowna, it’s a similar story. That town’s ER is closing at 8 p.m. each night until further notice.

Mayor Leonard Casley told CityNews staffing shortages and closures are not new for small towns in B.C.

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“To every small ER in the province, they’ve been run on such a shoestring that as soon as one person goes, it puts it in crisis,” he said.

“You know, the capacity was never built into the system. It was actually taken out of the system, over years of cuts, and here we are.”

Meanwhile, the BC Rural Health Network says it’s being overwhelmed with public complaints, and reports of serious health impacts resulting from the reduction in services.

Paul Adams from the network says the centralization of health care service management is part of the problem.

“We do need long-term solutions, but we need to come to the table, and we need to start these discussions and start thinking out of the box and not keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result,” he explained.

In a statement, the organization says the impact to rural residents is compounding and the lack of rural focus causes great concern for those who live rurally.

“Our membership and the residents of rural B.C. cannot continue to have services taken or diverted to support larger urban populations,” rural health network president Peggy Skelton said.

“B.C. rural communities are continually used as a buffer for staff shortages in larger centres and the negative impact on rural residents’ compounds. Imagine the situation where there is an emergency and the nearest facility is a considerable distance away, sometimes hours away.

“You try to get to your health care facility only to find the facility is now on diversion. Furthermore, the ambulances that transport people in an emergency are now much further away from their bases. Their ability to respond can increase by hours, not minutes. It is unacceptable and unsafe,” she said.

The organization is calling for individual communities to have a greater role in managing their own health facilities, rather than the centralized approach the province has now.