Emergency Room closures at Cariboo Memorial Hospital will not be a normal expectation.
That is from Diane Shendruk, the Vice President of Clinical Operations at Interior Health.
“We would absolutely commit that we do everything we can to fill any physician vacancies and staff vacancies that we have and will always provide a public service announcement in the event of any kind of service interruption. I can share with you that we do have all emergency department physicians shifts filled at Cariboo Memorial up to the need of February.”
The E.R. was closed overnight from 8 p.m. on Monday (Feb 12) until 6 a.m. on Tuesday due to a lack of physicians.
Shendruk says there is a shortage across not only B.C. but Canada, and she says they are actively recruiting for Williams Lake.
“We are actually seeing our retention and our recruitment strategy paying off and are really pleased to begin to see some stabilization within our care providers, and that includes our rural sites such as Williams Lake. I would say that we do need to continue to actively recruit physicians to the city of Williams Lake. We are right now experiencing just over a 50 percent vacancy rate across both the community and acute care in regards to physician needs.”
Shendruk says they do make special arrangements for people should the E.R. have to close, and in this case it involved people going to 100 Mile House or Quesnel.
“We will always when we have a service interruption provide guidance to people who may or will be assessing our care. 100 Mile is in Interior Health, but we work very closely with other health authorities to meet the needs of the population. There is not a special agreement. There is just an ongoing relationship and it’s just how we do work together in order to really mitigate the impact of any service interruption. Along with our partnerships, we do work with BC Ambulances, BC Emergency Services, and they do what they can to support the community if there is an interruption.”
In this case, Shendruk says they put two additional units based out of Williams Lake in order to be ready and available to meet any type of emergencies.
She adds that they been very fortunate to have locum physicians who come from across the province and within Interior Health to work in Williams Lake and in particular Cariboo Memorial Hospital, and she says they are also very grateful for the physicians who are continuing to live and work in Williams Lake.
Shendruk sys they really have gone over and above to support any type of service disruption and keep the site open.
