Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital in Clearwater
Image Credit: Interior Health
August 20, 2022 - 2:31 PM
The mayor of Clearwater says there are “deep concerns” from residents that ongoing closures of the town hospital’s only emergency department will become permanent.
Since the new year, towns like Clearwater, Oliver and Ashcroft have faced ongoing staffing shortages, causing intermittent closures of the local hospital emergency departments.
The latest closure at the Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital in Clearwater will last every night starting Aug. 19 until Aug. 26.
READ MORE: Emergency department closures continue in Clearwater, Oliver
“The joke around town is plan your accidents, plan your emergencies because the hospital is only open during the day and overnight closures have been ongoing for weeks," said Mayor Merlin Blackwell.
“There’s a deep concern this will become a permanent trend that we’re going to end up with not a 24/7 emergency department here in Clearwater like what Ashcroft sort of, has been compromised down to.”
The community is also facing an ambulance shortage to the point where Blackwell said he’s heard of at least two cases with people facing critical incidents who have driven themselves to the hospital in Kamloops.
“They have bypassed the ambulance service because nothing was available and they’ve just taken themselves,” he said. “You can at least use an ambulance... if one’s available for a critical incident that should end up in ER so we need both to be stabilized.”
Blackwell has been communicating with B.C. Emergency Health Services and Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital to ensure there are ambulances available if the ER is closed, he said.
The Interior Health Authority is also looking at having ER closures between 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. so the community at least has consistent evening coverage, he said.
“It concerns me because that’s what’s been happening in Ashcroft,” he said.
Two people have died in recent weeks a short distance away from an ambulance station in Ashcroft. No ambulances were immediately available at either time.
READ MORE: Another patient dies in Ashcroft while awaiting ambulance
Interior Health has hired two new nurses and a doctor that will be starting in the next two weeks and four more nurses are in negotiations with the health authority to move to the community, he said.
Blackwell said he now has some health authority contacts on speed-dial to be able to raise concerns.
“I can basically bring up (things like) a nurse can’t find housing or daycare, let’s talk about this right now,” he said, adding this communication change was established in the last few months.
The community is also facing a housing shortage, but with the Trans Mountain work pipeline wrapping up in the next few months Blackwell expects more rental properties will come back on the market.
Clearwater currently has one ambulance available during the time where the ER will be closed, according to a statement from Emergency Health Support Services.
They are working towards getting another one as the town normally has two, one is normally staffed by on-call paramedics. All nine paramedic positions in the community are currently filled, according to health services.
"BCEHS has been experiencing some staffing challenges, and since last year BCEHS, in partnership with the government of B.C., we have made significant changes and investments to improve and stabilize our staffing," the statement reads.
"Since 2021, BCEHS has added more than 500 new full-time and part-time permanent paramedic positions in rural and remote areas, and at least 125 in urban areas," and a national recruitment campaign is underway to fill vacant positions.
The service has added 42 new dispatch positions and 22 ambulance positions, nine of which have already been deployed.
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