Last week there was an announcement that four small rural ERs within Interior Health would be utilizing virtual after-hours coverage. The communities involved are Princeton, Clearwater, Lillooet and Nakusp. Like Tumbler Ridge, these remote ERs tend to have low-volume after-hours call numbers.
The model being used for these communities is different than the one that our Mayor and Council have asked Northern Health to implement in Tumbler Ridge. The model being advocated for Tumbler Ridge is known as VERRa – it has a proven track record and offers high-quality virtual ER care.
This difference notwithstanding, there are several principles that are clearly relevant:
Tumbler Ridge is not alone in struggling to provide after-hours access to local ER care.
Interior Health is pursuing innovative ways to keep its rural ERs open after-hours.
The mayors of these communities have come out in support.
The Minister of Health has endorsed this initiative from Interior Health.
It seems that what is happening in Tumbler Ridge stands in contrast to what Interior Health is doing, which is to try to keep its rural ERs open after-hours. TR residents are entitled to ask what the reasons might be for this apparent discrepancy.
What is urgently needed, and what our community continues to ask for, is engagement from Northern Health in a spirit of appreciative listening to our concerns. If this engagement does not happen, it merely prolongs our after-hours ER closures, and continues to put our lives at risk.
In the meantime, we can continue to let Northern Health know that, given our remoteness and our geography, removing our lifeline to life-saving treatment 24/7 in our own ER is not acceptable.
