Petitions, protests as anxiety and anger increase in Northern BC
As overnight emergency room closures in Northeastern British Columbia continued this week, residents in the region are pulling out all the stops when it comes to trying to get the provincial government’s attention and find a solution for the system failure at Northern Health.
The comments on Facebook whenever news of an ER closure is posted, clearly show the level of anger increasing as residents suggest a variety of measures from withholding taxes to sending the province a bill, as the mayor of Merritt has done, to punish the government and Northern Health for their failure to provide an essential service.
Although that’s not something Fort St. John Mayor Lilia Hansen has considered doing, she believes that the “main purpose is to have conversations. This needs to be highlighted, as this is an urgent priority, not only for individual communities, but province wide.”
Punishment many may believe is necessary, when repeated requests for the government to do something appear to have fallen on deaf ears.
“As community leaders it’s up to us to get the attention of the province, to say this is what their residents need – they’re not just my residents, they’re the province’s residents,” she said.
According to Northern Health, these closures are likely to continue through the summer.
“It doesn’t matter what level of government you are, you have to listen to your residents. What’s important to my residents is darn important to me.”
Fort St. John Mayor Lilia Hansen
In a statement from the health authority earlier this week, it said “we are currently working to fill remaining shift vacancies through July and August; in the event an emergency department service interruption is required, we will notify the community.”
The notifications the community receives from Northern Health are another bone of contention with the public. Often, the notice appears an hour before the closure is scheduled to begin. When the Fort St. John Hospital ER closures first began in April, Hansen only received sporadic notifications, but she says that has now improved.
“We are getting more regular correspondence, they are giving us a heads-up,” Hansen said. “I actually prefer that there is advance notice given to the public, with a block of time, and if they are able to fill the vacancies, it’s a much more positive news story to be able to say ‘we did expect to be closed on this date, but we have been successfully able to avert that happening’, rather than coming out each day.”
Hansen has heard from many residents expressing their concern over the ER closures, lack of communication from Northern Health and apparent inaction from the provincial government.
“I grew up in Fort St. John and I don’t recall the ER ever closing. There’s a lot of discussion around that, in coffee shops and workplaces, because you don’t know when you will have an emergency. You can’t plan for it. That’s why it’s an emergency.”
Other local politicians agreed that this is an urgent matter, and like many afraid of not having emergency services available when needed, MLA Dan Davies is fed up with the government. So much so, that after calling for an independent audit of the health authority for four years, he has written an open letter to Health Minister Adrian Dix demanding the province “stop with little slogan and actually fix the problem of rural health care.”
In his July 17 letter, Davies reminded Dix of the numerous times the opposition has raised the issue of healthcare in rural and northern BC and written to him about the risks people are put in when the emergency room is closed. “Yet there still seems to be no hurry to fix our collapsed health system.”
He added that “with each closure, the public and my office find out from Northern Health on a Facebook post that the emergency will be closed only hours before.”
“This is absolutely unacceptable. If Northern Health knows there are closures planned days in advance – surely there is no reason why the government can’t work with the health authority to find coverage from somewhere in Canada,” Davies wrote.
In addition to his letter, Davies has organized rallies in several communities. The Rally for Better Healthcare will take place on Thursday, July 25 at 4 p.m., outside Davies’ MLA officer in Fort Nelson, and at the green space at 100 St and 100 Ave. in Fort St. John. Peace River South MLA Mike Bernier is planning rallies for Dawson Creek, Chetwynd and hopefully Tumbler Ridge as well.
Politicians aren’t the only Northeastern BC residents to urge the government to take steps to investigate and fix the problems with Northern Health, and ensure that emergency care is available, whenever it’s needed.
Local lawyer Tyler Holte started a petition on July 4, calling for an independent investigation into hospital emergency department closures.
In the petition, Holte notes that while occasional ER closures could be attributed to unavoidable circumstances, “the recurring pattern suggests a deeper systemic issue that merits scrutiny.” Thus, the need for an independent investigation.
Holte says it’s time to hold healthcare decision makers accountable, and that an independent investigation will provide the accountability and transparency needed to create much needed change, while increasing community confidence in the system’s ability to handle emergencies.
As of Sunday afternoon, Holte’s petition had 4,156 signatures of its 5,000-signature goal.
Davies and Hansen believe there are solutions to fix the problem.
“We’re all taxpayers, and we all work towards the benefit of our province,” said Hansen. “It should not be a hard ask that we have access to healthcare.”
“It doesn’t matter what level of government you are, you have to listen to your residents. What’s important to my residents is darn important to me.”