On December 8, I was part of a delegation from Tumbler Ridge, and provided my detailed medical opinion to you on why your decision to curtail after-hours ER care in Tumbler Ridge is medically unsound, and consequently puts people’s lives and health at risk. I have had the opportunity to review your December 18 response to the delegation, and have the following comments.
Your response does not acknowledge the medical opinion that I provided. While you are not required to acknowledge or heed my opinion, those who appointed you should be aware that this opinion, from the longest-serving physician in Tumbler Ridge (28 years), is apparently not being acknowledged. Tumbler Ridge residents who rely on Northern Health for their healthcare have an expectation that such an opinions is at the very least acknowledged. Please could you let me know of any physicians who have provided conflicting medical evidence to what I presented to you?
Although the after-hours and weekend closure was once described as “temporary”, there is no indication in your response that a return to 24/7 ER coverage is being considered, either now or in future.
I suggested mediation as a way forward, given the impasse that has been reached. Your response did not acknowledge mediation as a potential solution. Tumbler Ridge remains willing to enter a mediation process.
Your response says that you are “committed to engaging with community leaders”. With regard to engagement, this has not happened to date. You suggest that we “explore solutions together”, along with the need to “stabilize, sustain and grow”. These are all fine sentiments that no-one should argue with, but sadly they are not part of our lived experience. Our lived experience is that over the past five years, under Northern Health’s leadership, we have gone from having one of the finest systems of ER care in BC to the current desperate reality.
Your response raises the possibility of virtual care being “explored”. However, no timeline is provided. It is more than four months since our after-hours ER services in Tumbler Ridge were terminated. We have been suggesting virtual care as an interim measure for the duration of that time—an unacceptably long time for us to finally hear that something that is potentially life-saving is being “explored”. What is needed, for example, is simply a message from Northern Health to VERRa (virtual ER support) giving the green light, and we would have a rapid interim solution.
Your response implies that a lack of ER services after hours will contribute to “a work environment that enables successful recruitment and retention”. I suspect that the opposite is the case, as has been pointed out to you.
Regarding the ‘enhancement’ of the ambulance service: what has been done is merely to reinstate the same service we used to have (two ambulances). Most certainly a robust ambulance service is important, but that should not be the only focus, and it should not be to the detriment of life-saving ER care that could be provided locally. Recent examples of an ambulance being stuck in the ditch while transferring a patient when road conditions were atrocious, and transfers taking more than two hours due to road conditions, exemplify some of the many dangers of relying solely on an ambulance service for after-hours care.
With regard to your reference to weekend daytime ER coverage: currently you provide ER coverage for 55 hours per week out of a total of 168 hours per week (actually less when you factor in the lack of coverage on statutory holidays). Your proposed ‘solution’ would increase that to 70 hours per week. At best, this can be considered a step in the right direction. However, there is a risk that trying to implement this will take up resources that would be better used to restore 24/7 ER care. My suggestion is therefore to be extremely cautious in viewing this as a possible solution.
In your response, you express the hope that we in Tumbler Ridge will “work with our leadership on recruitment and retention partnerships”. This seems to make the assumption that we are not already frenetically busy with such initiatives. A more appropriate response might have been one of gratitude for the work that we in Tumbler Ridge have already been doing in this field.
To me, a major problem in your response is your statement that we should all “focus on what can be, not what was”. Yes, we all want to work towards the best possible solution, but we are not asking for a return to 24/7 ER care out of a sense of nostalgic desire. We are asking for a return to 24/7 ER care because, until it was removed by Northern Health, it was a system that served the needs of Tumbler Ridge residents well.
Your policy does not take our location, geography and local expertise into account. It does not acknowledge that as a result of what you have put into place, lives will needlessly be lost, or that many people will be sicker than they need to be for longer than they need to be and may suffer needlessly from chronic conditions for the rest of their lives as a result. In your response, there is no acknowledgment of the loss of the ‘golden hour’ for Tumbler Ridge residents, no mention of the hazards of needlessly putting our residents on the roads when conditions are atrocious, nor the unnecessary burden you are expecting our paramedics to bear. There is no indication that you are willing to accept the abundant evidence that has been presented to you of how disastrous your decision has been for the community that I live in.
My message to you remains the same. The Tumbler Ridge community and Northern Health need to be collaborating. But that can only happen when Northern Health shows genuine intent and commits to re-instituting 24/7 ER services as soon as possible. I know that it is within your power to make that commitment, and I ask you again please to do so.
