A critical shortage of doctors and nurses in the North Island will result in another emergency-room closure in Port Hardy this weekend and continued understaffing that doctors call unsafe for patients.
Port Hardy Hospital’s emergency department will be closed from 5 a.m. Friday until 7 a.m. Sunday “due to limited staff availability,” according to Island Health.
Ambulances will be diverted to Port McNeill Hospital, about a 30-minute drive, in the latest in a series of temporary weekend shutdowns since the spring.
The crisis and creation of a local task force of health professionals to address it was spelled out in an Aug. 19 memo to the Doctors of B.C. obtained by the Times Colonist last week.
The Mount Waddington region — Alert Bay, Port Alice, Port Hardy and Port McNeill — “has been in an evolving state of crisis since March 2020,” wrote Helen Truran, the Vancouver Island representative for the Rural and Remote Divisions of Family Practice. Truran notes that Port Hardy is down to two physicians as of this month.
“They are very concerned about the level of service they can provide and are seeking organized closures of the emergency [department] with diversions to Port McNeill to ensure patient safety and prevent further physician burn-out,” said Truran.
The memo is based in part on minutes, also obtained by the Times Colonist last week, from an Aug. 17 meeting between Port Hardy physicians and Island Health.
In the minutes, Port Hardy family doctor Shannon Wong tells Island Health officials that ideally, there should be seven doctors for Port Hardy, but only two will be working in the primary care clinic as of September.
Despite significant efforts by the physicians to secure locums, “six emergency shifts remain uncovered in September,” she reported. An apartment has been secured as of Sept. 1 to house visiting locums and visiting specialists.
Physicians are trying to balance ER coverage with primary-care needs, outreach and long-term-care needs. In some cases, physicians are providing year-long prescriptions, “which is not best practice,” said Wong, according to the minutes.
“More than ever the physicians feel the work environment is unsafe for patients,” the minutes say.
On Thursday, Island Health announced the Aug. 16 hiring of two physicians — Dr. Evan Rogers and Dr. Noah O’Connell — for the Port McNeill Primary Care/A’ekaḵila’as Clinic, where they will join Dr. Anas Ahmed Toweir. All three physicians are accepting new patients.
Rogers and O’Connell were hired under a program called “return of service,” where the province covers the cost of two years of a post-graduate medical degree in return for a minimum two years of service in a high-need area.
Rogers, of Parksville and Victoria, and O’Connell, of Metchosin, say they work well together and chose to move to Port McNeill — out of seven communities — with their families to start practising as new physicians.
B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix said bringing two new family physicians to the Port McNeill clinic will expand access to regular health care for people in the region “in a meaningful way.”
Dr. Prean Armogam, the only permanent physician in Port McNeill, applauds the hiring but echoes many doctors in the area in calling for a region-wide solution rather than a “piecemeal” approach.
“It does help,” said Armogam. “But I still see 80 per cent of the town [in Port McNeill] and Port Hardy is losing doctors.”
Armogam said he spent 72 hours on-call last weekend, is working a full 12-hours-a-day week, “and guess who’s on call this coming weekend?”
The only permanent doctor in Port Hardy is expected to leave next summer, said Armogam.
The North Island physicians in memos and briefing notes say for now, they and the community need the ER closures to be planned and communicated in a timely fashion.
“Vulnerable patients in remote communities may not check media releases before driving to the hospital and the risk is that a person may show up to a closed door with a life-threatening situation like a hypoxic [oxygen-deprived] baby,” said Wong, according to the minutes.
While the Port Hardy ER is closed this weekend, other in-patient services will continue. Anyone experiencing a medical emergency is advised to call 911 or go to Port McNeill’s ER. Those with medical questions can call HealthLink B.C. toll-free at 811.
Port Hardy Primary Health Care Centre (A’ekaḵila’as), 9140 Granville St., is also open for walk-ins from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sept. 2-3.
>>> To comment on this article, write a letter to the editor: [email protected]
