A physician staffing shortage that would have seen Peace Arch Hospital's emergency ward closed for more than 24 hours at the start of the August long weekend has been solved.
BC United Surrey-White Rock MLA Trevor Halford and Dr. Claudine Storness-Bliss, a Surrey-based doctor and the BC United candidate for Surrey-Cloverdale in the upcoming provincial election, warned about the potential closure yesterday (Thursday, Aug. 1).
The closure was set to start at 4 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 2 and continue until Saturday, Aug. 3 at 7 a.m.
After Peace Arch News made repeated requests for comment from Fraser Health on Thursday, the health authority responded with an emailed statement after business hours Thursday that noted health-care worker shortages "around the world, across Canada and here in B.C. are impacting health-care systems 鈥� especially in maintaining continuous service in Emergency Departments."
The statement said the Peace Arch Hospital emergency department "is open and available to the community," and noted that all emergency physician shifts at the hospital are filled for the BC Day long weekend.
"We work to fill vacant shifts until the very last moment. Service adaptations and patient diversions are only used as a last resort when all other options have been exhausted," the statement said, and added Fraser Health is working to address physician staffing challenges.
A Facebook post from Peace Arch Hospital Foundation on Thursday evening noted that the diversion of emergency department services at Peace Arch had been cancelled.
"The diversion, which was scheduled to begin on Friday, August 2nd at 4:00 a.m., is no longer set to take place," the post reads. "Fraser Health has assured us that we now have adequate physician coverage to continue providing full Emergency Department services at Peace Arch Hospital."
On a local radio talk show Thursday morning, Storness-Bliss noted ERs are being shut down in communities across the province, including Merritt, Williams Lake, Fort St. John and most recently, Mission.
"We saw this last week with overnight for one night 鈥� that's unacceptable. What's even worse is that this information wasn't made public," she said. "You have to try to make it public, so people know not to waste their time trying to go to an emergency room that's closed."
She said staff shortages are why emergency rooms are closing.
"Fraser Health (is) scrambling trying to get coverage for the 24-hour period starting tomorrow morning at Peace Arch Hospital," Storness-Bliss said Thursday, adding it was possible they would get some of the shifts covered.
"At some point, likely they will have to turn some people away, and less than 24 hours away from that, it's unacceptable that they are still just scrambling to get this done so they don't lose face, as opposed to doing the right thing and making sure the public is aware. They are scrambling to try to keep (Peace Arch Hospital's emergency ward) open."
Halford noted that this weekend will be one of White Rock's busiest, with the annual Sea Festival and Semiahmoo Days happening through the entire weekend, attracting thousands to the seaside city for its live entertainment, shows, parade, fireworks and more.
"This is one of White Rock's busiest weekends as we host people from all over... we're welcoming everyone to White Rock, yet we're on the verge of closing our ER," Halford said Thursday. "At what point are (Fraser Health and health ministry) going to communicate with the public that we are hours away from this happening? It's one thing to be incompetent, but it's another to hide it from the public."
Both Storness-Bliss and Halford both pointed out that any staffing shortage is not the fault of frontline health care workers.
"It's a staff shortage across the board... we are seeing holes in coverage, but it's not because it's summer and everyone's taking vacation 鈥� people are cancelling their vacations to try and get these shifts covered," Storness-Bliss said. "It's because we've reached a critical point where there's not enough emergency physicians to cover these shifts."
