8 more overnight closures on the way for emergency room in B.C. Interior

Overnight closures at an emergency room in the B.C. Interior will continue for eight more nights, the local health authority announced Friday.

The emergency department at Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital in Clearwater, B.C., has been closed from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. since Aug. 11. It was scheduled to resume overnight service Friday night, but Interior Health announced instead that eight more nights of closures were expected.

In theory, the ER is open around the clock, but in practice, the hospital has only had overnight service for five nights in August (Aug. 1, 2, 8, 9, and 10). By the time the latest closures are scheduled to end, the emergency department will have been closed for 21 nights during the month.

The latest closures will take place from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. on Aug. 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 26. Interior Health attributes these closures to "limited nursing availability." Previous closures were also staffing-related.

Other services at Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital are unaffected by the ongoing closures.

When ER service is not available in Clearwater, patients are diverted to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops or 100 Mile House District General Hospital in 100 Mile House, both of which are more than 100 kilometres away from Clearwater, by road.

Clearwater Mayor Merlin Blackwell shared the news of the latest diversion with dismay on Friday, writing on Twitter: "It’s like déjà vu all over again."

Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital has been among the facilities most affected by staffing issues in recent months, but it's by no means the only one.

All across the province, a lack of available nurses and doctors has led to temporary closures and hours reductions at hospitals and clinics.

Recent closures in Creston and Elkford, for example, have put significant strain on East Kootenay Regional Hospital in Cranbrook. 

According to BC Nurses Union vice president Adriane Gear, that hospital's intensive care unit is often operating "anywhere between 115 per cent and 133 per cent overcapacity," while having as few as 50 per cent of the nurses it should have.

Earlier this month, Gear told CTV Morning Live that health-care facilities in the province have been understaffed for years, but shortages and wait times are currently the worst she's ever seen. 

On Monday, Dr. Josh Greggain from Doctors of B.C. offered a similar assessment with regard to the availability of family doctors, saying the province isn't "adequately serviced right now."

Greggain and Gear both cite stress and burnout among health-care workers as a key reason for the current situation.

The provincial government has said it is working on a 10-year strategy to address staffing issues in the health-care system. It has also announced measures aimed at improving recruitment and retention of health-care workers, and Premier John Horgan has stressed that more funding from the federal government is needed to fix health care in B.C. and across the country.  

With files from The Canadian Press