Continuing with their trend of announcing things that affect the community the day the new policy goes into effect, Northern Health announced on June 1 that, starting June 1, the Tumbler Ridge Health Centre’s Emergency Room would be open from 8am to 7pm, seven days a week.
A similar announcement was made on September 4 of last year, when Northern Health posted on their Tumbler Ridge Facebook page that there were changes coming to the emergency department.
Starting on September 5, on-call services at the emergency department would only be available starting at 8am on weekday mornings, and running until 9. During the day, the clinic and emergency department would be open until 5pm.
After hours, locals with emergency issues would have to travel to Dawson Creek or another regional hospital to seek services, either on their own or via BC Ambulance.
That very weekend, a patient died while being transported to Dawson Creek.
The announcement was met with much scorn and protest in town and three days later, hundreds of local residents turned out to rally against the cuts.
At the time, Town Councillor Chris Norbury, who helped organize the rally along with fellow Councillor Nicole Noksana, said the closure was more than an inconvenience, it was dangerous.
“Life-threatening change puts every single one of us at risk,” he says. “Emergencies don’t wait for business hours. Heart attacks, strokes, car accidents, allergic reactions…these things don’t schedule themselves between nine and five. We are here today to say loud and clear, our community deserves better. Our lives and the lives of our families matter. No one should be forced to drive hours in the middle of the night—half the year through snow and ice—hoping to reach care in time.”
In addition to a patient dying and the community protesting, the closures has led to other issues.
For instance, in November, Mayor Krakowka nearly died after choosing not to take up ambulance space on an evening emergency run.
When he showed up to the emergency room the next morning, he was immediately sent to Fort St John (there being no surgeon in Dawson Creek) where he underwent emergency surgery, and spent two weeks admitted to hospital.
At nearly the same time, another member of council—Nicole Noksana—also chose not to take up an ambulance, and was driven to Dawson Creek, where she, too, ended up having emergency surgery.
At the time, former head of the local clinic, Dr Charles Helm wrote: “Both cases involved abdominal pain. Northern Health leadership publicly told us on September 7 that, in their view, there are too many ER visits, and that the ER should be reserved for dire emergencies such as shortness of breath or chest pain.
“The moment I heard this, I publicly called it out as irresponsible advice, as most patients have no way of judging how sick they are.
“At the same time, I countered the advice from Northern Health leadership that closure of our ER after hours is actually good for us because supposedly we will get the care we need faster. (In my view, the opposite is true, as it eliminates the ‘Golden Hour’ in which accurate diagnosis and treatment can be life-saving.)”
Later, as fall turned to winter, we were sent a photograph of one of the ambulances in the ditch on the way to Dawson, due to icy roads.
While this is not a return to full service, the clinic will be open 11 hours a day, up from nine hours Monday to Friday.
Last month, the District and Northern Health announced a new alternative care approach to health care in Tumbler Ridge, “will rebuild a model of health care services that addresses the desire for an overnight ER service that can be sustained without compromising the stability of primary and community care services at Tumbler Ridge Health Centre.”
Details on that are still forthcoming, but Dr Helm says he is cautiously optimistic. “Some might balk at the mention of ‘virtual options’, but the virtual care option (through VERRa) has been a cornerstone of what we have been asking for, not as a final solution, but as an interim solution until we can get our physician or nurse practitioner numbers back up to where they should be.”
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
