For the first time last Saturday (August 31st), both Cariboo Memorial Hospital and 100 Mile House District General Hospital had their emergency departments closed at the same time.
Interior Health (IH) put out a notice for 100 Mile House and area residents a few hours before the temporary closure, with Williams Lake getting little notice in advance.
Cariboo Chilcotin Regional Hospital District Chair, Al Richmond says it comes down to staffing.
“It was a traumatic experience for everyone who relies on those two hospitals for emergencies.” says Richmond.
“Unfortunately 11th hour cancelations by staff who were unable to attend, being physicians sometimes, in some cases made it difficult for IH to regroup and find someone to fill those positions.”
Richmond says there’s a feeling in the community that they can run an ER with just nurses or other staff, but they need all components to have a viable ER.
He says having no staffing availability so suddenly leading to two emergency departments closing is devastating and disconcerting to citizens.
When they’re told that the money is there for the staff, but are just unavailable, it becomes a challenge.
Interior Health, along with the province is continuing work on recruitment and retention, with details provided to Williams Lake City Council and can be found here.
Richmond hopes that a closure alignment like this doesn’t happen again, but can’t say what a solution is when resources are being used to bring in staff.
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